The Biden administration is keeping protections in place for more than 2,000 grizzly bears in western states despite requests to lift the safeguards.

Western lawmakers growled, environmentalists applauded, and the federal agency braced for more wrangling of the kind that has accompanied the iconic mammal since it was listed as threatened under the ESA in 1975.

Grizzlies in Idaho, Montana, Washington and Wyoming will continue to be protected under the Endangered Species Act.