Yellowstone Bison

Magnificent animals.
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Yellowstone Bison Thrive, but Success Breeds Peril
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE, NYTimes




YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — The bison here are sporting their heavy winter robes these days as they nuzzle their noses into the snow in hope of snagging bits of grass to tide them over until spring. The national park's robust herd of nearly 4,000 bison virtually guarantees that most visitors to Yellowstone will see a clump of them every time they round a bend.

The bison have made a major recovery here after more than a century of slaughter that nearly drove them to extinction. But the bison may be a victim of their own success. The thriving herd — the only free-ranging bison in the country — is already 1,000 over what the park can bear, as estimated by a panel of the National Academy of Sciences. And a tangle of competing interests here in one of the nation's most revered public settings means an uncertain fate for these iconic beasts.

Depending on the weather, the bison could face intense competition for food. So far, the winter here has been relatively mild. But heavy snows would probably drive them to forage in lower elevations outside the park.

Once they leave Yellowstone, the bison can be shot, and not just by Montana livestock officials, as in the past. The National Park Service has agreed to help the state control stray bison by joining in the killing. (Last year, the State of Montana, with the park service, shot 202 bison; so far this year, they have shot 4, but most of the killing comes in the early spring.)

At the same time, the cattle industry and federal agriculture officials are renewing their efforts to wipe out brucellosis, a disease carried by bison that does not harm them, but can spread to cattle.

One curiosity of this situation is that no one has confirmed any cases in the wild of brucellosis transmission to cattle from bison. But there has been confirmed transmission by elk, as occurred last year in Idaho. But since elk hunting is a favorite sport in this region, elk are not singled out for methodical slaughter as bison are. This leads some here to perceive a bias against bison that dates from the days of the Wild West, when the United States Army slaughtered thousands of bison as a way to undermine the Indians, who depended on them for food, clothing and spiritual sustenance.

In any case, cows that get brucellosis can abort their calves, potentially decimating the livestock herds that graze on national forest lands outside the park.

The cattle industry is determined to eradicate the disease among Yellowstone bison by 2010. Park officials oppose the plan, saying that it would mean slaughtering all the bison, a cure that would be worse than the disease.

A group of 52 Indian tribes has offered its own solution. The tribes have offered to take the park's excess bison and re-establish them on Indian reservations. But Montana officials object, saying the Indians would simply be spreading brucellosis. The Indians say they would quarantine the animals for the required 18 months, through two birthing cycles, to make sure they are healthy. But no one is willing to let the animals go.

Watching every move is the Buffalo Field Campaign, a group that formed after a public outcry over a slaughter in the winter of 1996-97, when more than 1,000 buffalo were shot. Members of the campaign stake out the park boundaries from sunrise to sunset every day. If a bison leaves, they try to chase it back in.

As a result of these competing interests, everyone here is anxiously watching the winter sky to see how bad the weather will be and if the bison will start leaving en masse.

"We're expecting a pretty large migration out of the park," said Todd O'Hair, the natural resources policy adviser to Gov. Judy Martz of Montana. "We have substantially more buffalo than Yellowstone National Park has the resources to carry. We could see a lot of buffalo come out of the park, and if that's the case, we'll have to take them."

By historical standards, the bison are a tiny fragment of the millions that flourished until the white settlement of the Great Plains. Their near-extermination helped inspire the creation of Yellowstone, the nation's first national park, in 1872. But poaching and hunting continued, and by 1902, the Yellowstone herd had dwindled to 23 animals.

Over the last century, the size of the herd has fluctuated under different management plans that allowed for hunting and killings. In the winter of 1996-97, in addition to the buffalo that were shot by the government or shipped to slaughter, many starved to death, putting the toll at more than 1,300. After several lawsuits, the state and several federal agencies were forced into an uneasy truce and a management plan that has brought about the current recovery.

The plan, now in its third year, allows for more leeway in killing the animals outside the park once the herd inside reaches 3,000. Montana is to allow up to 100 bison that test negatively for brucellosis to leave the park. Once the number goes beyond that, officials are to chase the animals back into the park; failing that, they are to capture them and ship infected animals to slaughter. The meat and hides are distributed to social service organizations. Cooking kills the brucellosis bacteria.

The plan forces the National Park Service, whose principal mission is to protect Yellowstone's natural resources, to join in shooting strays.

Despite misgivings, park officials say the plan preserves the herd, even as individuals are sacrificed. "Our mission is to manage for a significant and sustainable population of free-roaming wild bison," said Suzanne Lewis, superintendent of Yellowstone. "It is not about managing individual animals, like if you have one bison at the San Diego Zoo."

Wayne G. Brewster, deputy director of the Yellowstone Center for Resources, admitted that killing bison was "tough to swallow" for the park service. But it did so, he said, because the plan provides for conservation of the herd and raises the tolerance level for bison on public land outside the park, and "because you can't stay at war forever."

But a new war looms over the proposal to wipe out brucellosis.

Dr. Valerie E. Ragan, assistant deputy administrator of veterinary services with the Agriculture Department, says the disease, which exists in bison only in Yellowstone and not in other herds, is a threat to both cattle and the economy.

If a state is brucellosis free, it can ship its cattle to other states without testing them first. But if two herds of cattle are infected, expensive testing is required. At the moment, cattle in only two states, Texas and Missouri, have brucellosis. Although the disease exists in Yellowstone, its federal jurisdiction allows Montana to call itself brucellosis free.

Dr. Ragan said that a number of innovative steps could be taken with vaccines, contraceptives and separation of bison and cattle at birthing time, but that these methods were imperfect and some bison would still probably have to be slaughtered.

"It's pretty obvious that if we're going to do anything to get rid of the disease long-term," she said, "we're going to have to make some herd-management adjustments for a time, then we can go back to natural regulation or whatever the park thinks is best."

 

You did the right thing... and they are not domesticated and do not behave like cattle. There's a famous story in the Park Service about herding Bison at Wind Cave through some chutes to give them shots. Pickups were being used to drive the herd and when they came to the chutes, a bull decided he didn't want to go through, so he turned and faced the trucks. One of the trucks tried to gently nudge him into a chute and he flpped out, charging the trucks and bringing the rest of the herd with him. During the stampede, bison rammed each truck and one even climbed over the top and collapsed the cab, requiring the driver to lay down on the floorboard. After the dust had cleared, two of the three trucks were totaled and the other was close. If you're ever in Yellowstone, stop by the Canyon Visitor Center and watch the videos they have of Bison getting fed up with tourists who get too close. One guy was lifted 15 feet or more in the air by a flick of the neck. They are a lot stronger and move a lot faster than cows!