The U.S. Park Service (USPS) says it is reducing the wild bison population due to the threat of them spreading brucellosis. This is despite the fact that wild bison in Yellowstone National Park has never been documented as having caused brucellosis in any cattle.
“Yellowstone’s slaughter of wild bison is as lacking in scientific reason as it is in public support,” said Buffalo Field Campaign’s Stephany Seay, as quoted by EcoWatch.
Elk do carry brucellosis and have transmitted the disease to livestock numerous times over the years. In Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, they are free to migrate from Yellowstone and are managed by hunting to keep populations at sustainable levels in Montana.
The state of Montana and the national park refuse to maintain the wild bison in the way they do elk herds, says Buffalo Field Campaign habitat coordinator Darrell Geist. He adds that doing so would put the annual capture of buffalo by the park rangers out of business.
Geist blames the whole program on the livestock industry, saying “Montana is blessed with an abundance of public lands but cursed by a statute that stands in the way of managing migratory buffalo as a wildlife species. Few people know that MCA 81-2-120 is almost entirely funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to back Department of Livestock management of wild buffalo.”
Yellowstone and the Interagency Bison Management Plan (IMBP) have set the number of buffalos slaughtered annually at 900. So far this year, over 400 have been killed by hunters. The aim is to keep killing the wild bison until their numbers are reduced from about 4,400 in the wild down to 3,000. This target was set after conferring with the livestock industry over the surplus wild bison.
Buffalo Field Campaign’s executive director Dan Brister says the move is politically motivated. “There is no such thing as ‘surplus’ wild bison,” said Brister. “Yellowstone’s target population cap of 3,000 animals is nothing more than a politically derived number that has nothing to do with carrying capacity.”
Brucellosis is a highly contagious disease of both animals and humans. State and federal programs have been in existence for over 70 years, and brucellosis has just about been eliminated in domestic livestock. Brucellosis was originally brought to North America by Eurasian cattle.
