More Yellowstone bison shipped to slaughter

BILLINGS – In just less than a week, authorities have captured more than 520 bison near Yellowstone National Park’s northern border as part of an effort to reduce the potential spread of the disease brucellosis, a park spokesman said Tuesday.

The figures include the roughly 210 bison captured Monday, spokesman Al Nash said.

Most of the captured bison will end up slaughtered without being tested for brucellosis, he said. However, 38 of the younger bison were tested and sent Monday to a research facility at Corwin Springs, north of the park, he said. It’s possible that more calves will be tested for the project, officials said.

Young bison are sought after for the state-federal research project, which aims to see if quarantined bison could be useful both in finding bison free of the disease and in establishing brucellosis-free bison herds in this state and others. Bison must test negative for brucellosis to be included in the research.

Just over 100 bison were shipped to slaughter Tuesday, and authorities were holding nearly 270 bison at the Stephen’s Creek capture site near the park’s northern edge as of early Tuesday afternoon, Nash said. Late last week, one calf died at the capture site, he said.

Bison meat, heads and hides are being donated to American Indian tribes, said Marc Bridges, of the state Department of Livestock.

Since last week, nearly 525 bison have been captured near Yellowstone’s northern boundary, Nash estimated. Most of the bison captured Monday were on private land outside the park but were not hazed before being herded into the capture facility, he said.

The hazing and capture of bison is allowed under a state-federal management plan aimed at reducing the potential spread of brucellosis from bison to cattle in Montana. Brucellosis is a disease that some wildlife, including bison and elk in the region, have, and it can cause cows to abort. That’s a big worry for ranchers.

Though many of the park’s bison have brucellosis, activists have argued that there’s never been a documented case of bison-to-cattle transmission in the wild.

Nash said park officials are evaluating the situation daily. He said this level of bison movement is unusual this early in the winter.

Stephany Seay, a spokeswoman for the activist Buffalo Field Campaign, said the plan is failing the bison. The number captured so far this winter is the highest in years, she said.

Yellowstone’s bison population is estimated at about 4,900 animals.