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Bison killed on private property north of Yellowstone

By SCOTT McMILLION, Chronicle Staff Writer

The Montana Department of Livestock shot and killed a bull bison near Gardiner Thursday after the animal refused to be hazed from private property, DOL spokeswoman Karen Cooper said Thursday.


 Rangers had tried to haze the animal Wednesday evening, Yellowstone spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews said.

About 100 bison have been lingering in the Jardine area outside the park for weeks. The joint state/federal bison management plan allows bison to stay in that area, where there are no cattle, as long as they don't go too far.

"As long as Montana maintains a zero tolerance policy towards wild buffalo, we will continue to see buffalo being killed for following their instincts," said Ted Fellman, of the Buffalo Field Campaign, a protest group.

Cooper said a field test showed the animal tested positive for exposure to brucellosis. Bull bison can contract brucellosis, but aren't considered a major threat of spreading the disease, which usually is distributed through contact with birthing materials.

Meanwhile, DOL is also erecting a temporary bison trap in the Horse Butte area north of West Yellowstone.

The management plan gives DOL the option of using that trap to test animals for brucellosis and release a limited number that have no sign of the disease. It also has the option, because the Yellowstone National Park herd is so big, to ship bison to slaughter without testing them.

The herd now numbers about 4,000 animals.

DOL did not erect the trap last winter.

Few animals have left the park on the west side this winter, Cooper said. They traditionally move out later in the winter, on that side.

"A lot of focus is on the Gardiner area" now, Cooper said, because bison are moving there.

The National Park Service also has a trap northwest of Gardiner, inside the park, in the Stephens Creek area.

Matthews said 32 bison were hazed into the park's interior Thursday in the Stephens Creek area.

"We've been busy," she said.

The meat, hide and head of the animal killed Thursday will be donated to tribal organizations or to food banks, Cooper said.

Scott McMillion is at scottm@dailychronicle.com

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