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BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - Yellowstone cutthroat trout are "holding their own" in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming despite threats ranging from habitat loss and disease to hybridization with other species, state and federal fisheries biologists said Wednesday.
The biologists said their findings, in a new study described as the most sweeping assessment of the popular game fish to date, support a federal decision last year not to put the fish under Endangered Species Act protections. Environmental groups have pushed for such a listing on the argument that Yellowstone cutthroat are in the midst of a drastic population decline.
Wade Fredenberg with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the latest data refute that claim.
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