Grizzly bear approved in US state for first time in 43 years after Trump administration decides they're not under threat there anymore

State wildlife officials have approved Wyoming's first grizzly bear hunt in 44 years.

The decision allows hunters to shoot and kill as many as 22 grizzlies in total in a wide area to the east and south of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.

It comes after the Trump administration decided to de-list the animal as a threatened species in the region, an idea formerly proposed in 2016, under the Obama administration.

The move was based on US Fish and Wildlife Service findings which suggested the bears' numbers had recovered sufficiently in recent decades that federal safeguards were no longer necessary.

Since the decision, environmental activists have sued the US government in an attempt to restore the grizzly's federal protected status, arguing climate change and poaching still threaten the species' viability.

The region, which also includes parts of Montana and Idaho, is home to around 700 of the bears.

Montana has not yet allowed grizzlies to be hunted, but Idaho will allow one to be hunted in September.

Slow to reproduce, grizzlies number fewer than 2,000 in the lower 48 states, compared to an historic high of 100,000 before widespread shooting, poisoning and trapping had reduced their numbers to just several hundred by 1975, when they were placed under federal protection.

They are also at the heart of a cultural divide between Native Americans, who revere the bears, and ranchers and others who see them as potential threats to livestock and a potential impediment to further mining, logging and fossil energy development.

The decision, approved 7-0 by the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission, was denounced by tribal leaders.

"This is a sacred being that is central to our religious and life ways," said Brian Jackson of the Blackfoot Confederacy. "This is not a hunting issue; this is a killing issue."

But others welcomed the opportunity to hunt in order to keep grizzly numbers in check.

"I know 'management' seems to have gotten a dirty name. But that's the way we have to do it if want these animals to continue in the state," said Charles Price, a rancher and former Game and Fish commissioner. "Hunting must be part of the management system."

It comes as Mr Donald Trump's administration proposed scrapping rules banning hunters from using bait to lure grizzly bears into the open.

Previously, bear-baiting was decided to be potentially unsafe and inconsistent with federal laws.

Additional reporting by agencies