| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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| News
Article 1/29/04 |
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| Bison
on the move: Annual migration to park borders taking
shape
By SCOTT McMILLION, Chronicle Staff Writer
The Bozeman Daily Chronicle
1/29/04
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Bison
have begun moving out of Yellowstone National Park and
hazing efforts have started on both the north and west
sides of the park.
The Montana Department of Livestock, assisted by several
other agencies, hazed 18 bison Wednesday from the Madison
River area back inside the park, DOL spokeswoman Karen
Cooper said.
"That's the first activity of any size for this season,"
she said, adding there were "no problems and no arrests."
The hazing was done on snowmobiles, she said.
Larger numbers of bison are outside the park or near its
borders on the north side, near Gardiner.
About 95 animals are outside the park in the Jardine area,
where they are allowed to roam untested for brucellosis
as long as they don't move too far north.
Another 60 to 70 animals are between Gardiner and Mammoth
Hot Springs, said Yellowstone spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews,
and rangers on horseback and in vehicles began hazing
Jan. 18.
Three hazing operations have moved as many at 71 animals
since then, she said.
Bison are tolerated only in very limited areas outside
the park because of fears they will spread brucellosis
to cattle, although there has never been a documented
case of such transmittal in the wild.
State and federal officials operate under a plan that
calls for relying on hazing as first approach. If that
doesn't work, bison can be trapped and slaughtered. If
they can't be captured, they can be shot in the field.
The National Park Service operates a trap northwest of
Gardiner and DOL has one on private land in the Duck Creek
area north of West Yellowstone.
It also has a U.S. Forest Service permit to assemble and
use a second trap in the Horse Butte area, near Hebgen
Lake.
That trap has not been assembled this winter, Cooper said.
"We can expect more hazing," Matthews said.
Scott McMillion is at scottm@dailychronicle.com
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