The bear that inspired the teddy bear is coming off the endangered species list.
The Louisiana black bear has been on the list since 1992 due to habitat loss, reduced quality of habitat and death from human interactions. There were fewer than 150 bears left back then, but the population has grown to between 500 and 700, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The bear is the inspiration for the teddy bear stuffed animal, thanks to President Theodore Roosevelt’s famous refusal to shoot one during a 1902 hunting trip to Mississippi. Members of the president’s hunting party, who had trapped it, had tied the bear to a tree. A candy store owner in Brooklyn, N.Y., saw a cartoon of the incident and was inspired to make toys resembling the bear.
“President Theodore Roosevelt would have really enjoyed why we are gathered here today,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said during the announcement. “Working together across private and public lands with so many partners embodies the conservation ethic he stood for when he established the National Wildlife Refuge System as part of the solution to address troubling trends for the nation’s wildlife.”
It’s the second announcement about an American bear species coming off the endangered species list in a week. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced last week the Yellowstone grizzly bear may be coming off the list in the future.
