Yellowstone captures 29 bison as first groups migrate outside park

BILLINGS – Yellowstone National Park officials have captured 29 bison for possible enrollment in the agency’s live transfer program, according to information first provided by the advocacy group Buffalo Field Campaign.

The bison were some of the first to migrate north out of the park into the Gardiner Basin this winter.

Last winter featured one of the largest bison migrations in decades due to harsh winter conditions. The big migration also led to the highest hunter harvest just outside the park. Between native and nonnative hunters, animals captured for slaughter and those wounded and euthanized, 1,551 bison were killed last year.

Last week, another group of 49 bison migrated beyond Yellowstone’s border where five were shot by tribal hunters on Sunday morning in Beattie Gulch, on the Custer Gallatin National Forest, Buffalo Field Campaign reported.

The remaining bison then retreated back into the park.

“Wild buffalo herds should be thriving on millions of acres of national public trust lands but for the capitulation of the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service to Montana’s plan of managing wild buffalo for extinction,” said James Holt, Buffalo Field Campaign’s executive director, in a statement.

Montana officials have never called for the extinction of bison but want the park’s population to remain low to avoid the chance that any migrate out of the park.

Buffalo Field Campaign has joined a lawsuit seeking to protect the animals under the Endangered Species Act, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reviewing.

In a recent interview during the Yellowstone Summit, Chris Geremia, the park’s bison biologist, highlighted the “incredible value” of the last migratory bison herd in the Lower 48 States, which also faces a complete suite of predators.

Due to Montana officials’ fear of bison transmitting brucellosis to cattle, bison movement outside the park is limited to tolerance zones near Gardiner and West Yellowstone. Meanwhile, elk – which also carry the disease – are free to roam although monitored by the state’s wildlife agency.

“(Bison) are just bursting to get out of this park and get back to where they used to roam,” Geremia said.

Last winter’s tribal hunts, which are controlled by the eight treaty tribes, drew scrutiny due to the large number of animals killed. Geremia said park officials are struggling with when the hunting is too much and whether the Park Service should hold animals to protect them.

“I can’t even start to tell you how incredibly hard it is to try to orchestrate this and also empower people to be part of the solution,” he said. “It’s a very, very difficult effort of trying to figure out how it’s going to work.”

George Bumann, who hosted the conversation with Geremia, said wildlife issues in the park are almost on a par with politics and religion when it comes to fervor and opposing views.

A resident of the Gardiner area, Bumann said it was difficult to watch last year’s hunts and questioned what is the best way to honor the national mammal of the United States.

“We recognize how hard this is,” Geremia said. “We don’t try to hide from this. We’re trying to do something nearly impossible, to thread this needle of conflict.”

Part of that threading involves capturing bison and holding those that test negative for exposure to brucellosis in quarantine. After 1½ years of negative tests, the quarantined males can be shipped to the Fort Peck Reservation for eventual distribution to participating tribes.

Female bison must pass three years of testing and quarantine before they can be shipped to tribes through the Bison Transfer Program.

The Park Service is working on a new bison management plan that has been denounced by Montana officials who want to see the park’s bison population at no more than 3,000 animals. Last fall, the park’s herd was estimated at about 4,800 animals.