Officials with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department say grizzly bears have been doing well under state management and do not need extra protection from the Endangered Species Act.

State wildlife managers in a news release Friday said they disagreed with a judge’s recent ruling to restore federal protection for grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Game and Fish officials said population data show the species remains robust.

“We’re very disappointed with the recent decision to relist grizzlies,” said Bill Rudd, assistant wildlife division chief for Game and Fish and the department’s representative on the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team. “This year’s data on grizzly bear populations show we have a thriving and growing population of bears in the Yellowstone ecosystem.”

“Many of the current human-grizzly bear conflicts reflect continuing increases in grizzly numbers and expansion into areas less suitable for bears,” Rudd said. “We need to get past the legal battles over the status of this species and continue our work on managing the bear for the future.”

The Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team estimates there are a minimum of 576 bears in the Yellowstone area, about 20 fewer than last year’s estimate.

“These counts are very conservative in nature, and there is no reason to suggest that the actual population is not continuing to grow at around 4 percent annually,” said Dave Moody, large-predator program coordinator for Game and Fish.

From his court in Missoula, Mont., U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy gave grizzly bears back their threatened status under the Endangered Species Act last month, saying state laws and regulations were inadequate to protect the species. Molloy also said a decline in whitebark pine trees, a food source, threatens the bear’s continued survival.

Game and Fish officials acknowledged that mountain pine beetle activity continues at relatively high levels and many whitebark pine trees have died. But they said bears usually find alternative foods such as deer and elk meat.