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Moose, Wyo. • Grand Teton National Park officials say they asked Wyoming wildlife managers to capture and keep a popular grizzly bear close to the Jackson Hole area before the state managers decided to move the animal east of Yellowstone National Park, where they soon euthanized it for causing problems.

The killing has stirred opposition among wildlife photographers and others. An online petition demands more explanation from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

The state agency tried once before to keep the bear in the Jackson Hole area but it continued to have run-ins with people, according to Dan Thompson, large canrnivore manager for Game and Fish.

In Jackson Hole, the bear known by its ear tag as Grizzly No. 760 had been a popular target for photographers but had a history of venturing too close to human habitation.

"Park biologists had conversations with Wyoming Game & Fish Department related to the capture and relocation of bear #760 and expressed an interest in keeping him relatively close," park spokeswoman Jackie Skaggs told the Jackson Hole News & Guide (http://bit.ly/1vlnLmI ) in a statement.

However, Grand Teton officials supported the need for the bear to be moved away from a subdivision, Skaggs said, and acknowledged the release location decision belonged to Game and Fish.

The bear was moved last year and kept within the Jackson Hole area. This year, after being moved to an area five miles from Yellowstone's East Entrance, the bear wandered more than 40 miles through the Absaroka Range and ended up along Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone River.

The bear pulled a hunter's deer out of a tree and reportedly charged a vehicle. State wildlife managers captured and killed the bear with a lethal injection Oct. 27.

Game and Fish had considered but decided against the Grand Teton request to keep the bear closer to Jackson Hole, Thompson said.

"There's no advantage to us setting up an animal for failure," Thompson said. "Everything we do is for the long-term viability of the bear and for human-safety reasons."

The previous attempt to move the bear was unsuccessful, he said. In 2013, after the bear was frequenting the Lizard Creek Campground in Grand Teton, wildlife managers moved it not far away down Flagg Ranch Road.

"It didn't work," said Thompson. "It came right back."