February 12, 2008...8:32 am
37 Bison Headed to Slaughter; More Expected to Meet Same Fate
Thirty-seven bison from Yellowstone National Park were shipped to slaughter on Monday, and dozens more may be shipped today.
The bison were captured Friday and Sunday along the park’s northern border as part of an 8-year-old plan by federal agencies and the state of Montana intended to reduce the risk of bison spreading brucellosis to cattle in the area.
The Park Service captured 54 bison on Friday and put them in the Stephens Creek capture facility near Gardiner. Of those, 17 calves that tested negative for exposure to brucellosis were set aside and will be sent to a state and federal research facility at Corwin Springs.
The rest were not tested for the disease and were trucked to slaughter Monday morning.
On Sunday, 41 more bison were captured near the park’s northern edge. Any calves that test negative will be taken to Corwin Springs, and the rest will be shipped to slaughter, probably today, Al Nash, a Yellowstone spokesman, said Monday afternoon.
The bison are being managed under the Interagency Bison Management Plan approved in 2000. The intent is to keep a viable, wild bison herd and maintain Montana’s brucellosis-free status, Nash said.
About 1,000 bison were taken out of the herd in 2005 during a busy year for bison hazing and capture, especially along the park’s northern edge.
The population rebounded, though, and aerial surveys last July and August estimated there were about 4,700 in Yellowstone. Inclement weather has kept crews from conducting similar surveys this winter.
Nash said the latest activity won’t have an impact on the herd’s overall health.
“Removal of some animals from this population is not a threat to the long-term viability or genetic diversity of this herd,” Nash said.
The Buffalo Field Campaign, a bison advocacy group, criticized the Park Service for again “caving in” to livestock interests over the interest of Yellowstone’s bison herd.
By the end of this week, more bison will be shipped to slaughter than are killed in Montana’s bison hunt, predicted Mike Mease, the group’s co-founder.
“They’re going to kill every buffalo that comes out of the park this year,” Mease said. “It’s really insanity.”
Instead of focusing more on risk management, a hard line is being taken against bison in order to protect a small number of cattle, he said.
“I think America’s ready for a change, and I think it’s coming,” Mease said.
The Park Service began hazing bison Dec. 12 and has done so periodically since then. It wasn’t until snow piled deep in the park and began to crust over that bison began to move in larger numbers toward the west and north borders.
The bison are following ancient migration routes used in winters, in part, to escape deeper snow and find food more easily at lower elevations.
But brucellosis, a disease believed to have been transmitted from cattle to Yellowstone’s bison in the early 1900s, changed the dynamics. The contagious disease can cause abortions in cows, bison and elk. A herd of cattle in Bridger showed up with the disease last year. Another outbreak could mean loss of Montana’s brucellosis-free status and implementation of extra testing and paperwork, along with other possible restrictions on cattle exports from the state.
The interagency plan is meant to keep bison from transmitting brucellosis to cows when they wander west and north out of Yellowstone.
When the bison population in the park is more than 3,000, the plan allows managers to send some bison to slaughter. Nash said adult bison captured Friday and Sunday weren’t tested for the disease because there wasn’t any intention of holding them in the Stephens Creek facility until grasses green up in the spring and bison are less apt to leave the park.
Holding them that long in the enclosed pasture, and keeping them reliant on people for food, wasn’t a good option.
“We don’t want to habituate the animals, and there are limits to the number we can keep for any period of time,” Nash said.
There were about 200 bison around the Mammoth and Gardiner areas late last week before the capturing operations began.
There are far more bison in the central portion of the park and, so far, there don’t seem to be any signs of larger numbers moving toward the park’s border, Nash said. That could change, however, depending on winter conditions.
From the Billings Gazette
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