MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the opening of the first public grizzly bear hunts in Wyoming and Idaho in more than 40 years, as he considers whether the government was wrong to lift federal protections on the animals.

U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen's order came just two days before the states prepared to open their grizzly bear hunting seasons on Saturday. It will remain in effect 14 days.

"The threat of death to individual bears posed by the scheduled hunts is sufficient" to justify a delay in the state's hunting seasons, Christensen wrote.

The m...