Home » 2025 Inductees »
Chris Servheen ~ 2025 Inductee
Chris Servheen
1950 –
A University of Montana Grizzly was essential in the effort to recover threatened grizzlies in the lower 48 states.
In the 1970s, Chris Servheen earned both his bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. in wildlife biology from the University of Montana and a master’s degree from the University of Washington. As Servheen started his Ph.D. studying grizzlies in the Mission Mountains in the mid-1970s, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) had just listed the grizzly bear as threatened in the lower 48 states with an estimated population of only 200 to 300.
His education landed him the role of grizzly bear recovery coordinator with the USFWS in 1981, based at the University of Montana. For almost 35 years, he coordinated recovery actions for grizzly bears in the Northern Rocky Mountains and Washington and cooperated with Canadian researchers and managers in British Columbia and Alberta. When the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee was created in 1983, Servheen became its advisor, interacting with multiple agencies from the federal government and the states. He also chaired eight boards of review investigating circumstances of human fatalities due to grizzly bear attacks. Each investigation contributed to a better understanding of these incidents and potentially to reducing human-grizzly bear conflict.
Toward the end of his tenure with USFWS, Servheen also worked five years as the white nose syndrome coordinator in the Mountain-Prairie Region. White nose is an introduced fungus from Europe that infects North American bats and eventually kills them. He also served three years as a member of the polar bear recovery team. When Servheen retired from the USFWS in 2016, an estimated 2,000 grizzly bears roamed in and around Montana.
While at the USFWS, Servheen was also an adjunct research associate professor at UM, where he chaired the graduate committees of 21 graduate students and he also mentored new wildlife and habitat professionals. At UM, he taught international wildlife conservation for 18 years. He himself has published more than 100 academic papers and reports. He’s published with at least 50 other researchers, and his work has informed thousands of other academic papers.
Since he retired, Servheen has remained busy, advocating for grizzly bears and working on bear-smart initiatives. He is the co-chair of the North American Bears Expert Team for the International Union for Conservation of Nature Bear Specialist Group and was board chair of the Montana Wildlife Federation. As such, Servheen speaks with ranchers, rural leaders, tribal citizens, guides and outfitters, county commissioners and everyday Montanans about a positive vision for grizzly bear recovery and efforts to reduce human-bear conflict.
In addition, Servheen regularly rallies biologists to emphasize science-based decision-making for all wildlife species. This advocacy includes generating sign-on letters, prompting phone calls, organizing public testimony, and sharing research with elected officials and administrative staff. He testified in 2023 and 2025 before Congress on grizzly bear issues. Servheen recently joined Doug Smith, retired Yellowstone Park gray wolf recovery coordinator, presenting a series of public lectures on the future of grizzlies and wolves.