First bison of season killed; record number in Yellowstone

By SCOTT McMILLION, Chronicle Staff Writer

The number of bison in Yellowstone National Park is at or above record levels, and crews there are preparing a bison trap for what could be a busy season.

How many animals are captured and killed will depend on what kind of weather the winter brings.

"That's the driver" in bison management, said Rick Wallen, a wildlife biologist for the National Park Service.

A recent count estimated the herd at 4,250 animals.

A summer 1994 count found 4,100 animals, but might have missed some bison, Wallen said.

Wallen estimated about 1,900 have been shot or shipped to slaughter since then because of fears they will spread the disease brucellosis to domestic cattle.

By the spring of 1997, at the end of a brutal winter that saw about 1,300 bison die, the herd had fallen to 2,100 animals.

"We've had a pretty good rebound," Wallen said of the current herd size.

Every winter, bison leave the park, although the number varies greatly from year to year. And every year, some bison are killed after they wander into Montana.

The Park Service and the Montana Department of Livestock killed the first bison of the season on Tuesday. That bull had been hazed several times but kept leaving the park, so officials shot it in the Duck Creek area north of West Yellowstone.

A complicated plan worked out among several state and federal agencies during the Clinton administration calls for different strategies to deal with the bison, depending on the herd size and the time of year.

For the fall and early winter in the park, Wallen said, the emphasis will be on "disease management."

That means hazing animals back into the park will be the first priority. If that doesn't work, they will be captured and tested for brucellosis. Those that test positive for exposure to the disease will be shipped to slaughter. Those that test negative will be marked and released.

Around the first of March, if the herd is still above 3,000 animals, the emphasis shifts to population control. All captured animals can then be sent to slaughter, without testing.

The Park Service sent about 200 untested bison to slaughter in March.

The policy has caused an outcry from environmental and animal rights groups.

The Fund for Animals, which has filed several lawsuits over the issue, on Wednesday decried Tuesday's shooting of the bison on private land outside the park.

"The egregiously cruel slaughter of a bull buffalo is a deeply troubling sign that this will likely be a very bloody winter for the Yellowstone buffalo herd," the Fund's Jeff Leitner said.

The chances of a bull bison spreading brucellosis are very slim. The disease is spread primarily through infected birthing materials and there are no cattle in the West Yellowstone area now anyway.

Karen Cooper, spokeswoman for DOL, noted that the bison herd has been above the 3,000 level for about two years.

DOL runs two bison traps in the West Yellowstone area.

Cooper said whether any captured bison will be tested for the disease or simply shipped to slaughter will depend on circumstances like the weather and the number of animals involved.

"There may be times when those bison would be sent to slaughter without testing," she said. "The decisions will be made at the appropriate time."

Scott McMillion is at scottm@dailychronicle.com

Reader Comments