The Reality of Yellowstone's Bison Hunt

[Note from Rick: Buffalo Field Campaign recently reported seeing 21 bison shot at one time in Gardiner Basin. That report reminded me of a day when Mary and I witnessed a similar massacre. This blog is based on that day and describes the reality of the Yellowstone bison hunt.]

One winter day, Mary and I take turns scanning with binoculars along the floor of Gardiner Basin and to a thin line of conifers that marks Yellowstone National Park's northern border. Just beyond that border is Beattie Gulch in Gallatin National Forest. There, winter-hungry bison that migrate past the invisible park boundary in search of dried grass not buried under deep snow are shot by hunters. 

But really, hunter is the wrong word. Those people we watch through binoculars in Beattie Gulch—there are at least fifty of them, some in camo, some in bright orange vests—they’re not hunters. They’re shooters. They’re a firing squad. They stand in the open, within sight of their pickup trucks, their guns ready, alongside the route that bison use each year. The shooters wait for bison to unwittingly enter their field of fire.

When we look toward the park, we count twenty-nine bison, walking in a long line toward the firing squad. The animals seem oblivious to danger. But why shouldn’t they be? They spend most of their lives in Yellowstone protected from hunting. We watch and worry as they close in on the firing squad.

Then we hear the first shots, popping sounds at this distance. 

We’re shocked to see a bison fall and amazed that the rest of the herd does not flee. Instead, they circle their fallen member, as if wondering what’s wrong. 

Pop! Pop! Another bison down.

Some of the group moves toward the second bison on the ground.

Pop! Pop! Pop! Two more bison fall. Still the rest don’t turn tail.

Within minutes, twenty-one bison lay scattered and still in front of the firing squad. We feel some relief as eight survivors turn from the slaughter and in a much shorter line escape Beattie Gulch and climb up a draw, heading back towards the park. One limps, perhaps wounded. 

Mary and I sit silent, sad, and angry. We know that if today’s survivors make it back into the park they could be safe. Or their days could be numbered. Though these eight escaped the firing squad today, the annual winter capture of bison by the National Park Service at the Stephens Creek Capture Facility within Yellowstone may take them. (Buffalo Field Campaign reports that the Park Service informed them that the capture facility will not operate this year.)

This controversial hunt outside the park and capture within the park are required by the Interagency Bison Management Plan—the IBMP. That plan was written years ago by a court-ordered coalition of federal and state agencies including the National Park Service, US Forest Service, USDA’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service, Montana Department of Livestock, and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. Later, the InterTribal Buffalo Council, the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes, and the Nez Perce Tribe joined. Goals of the IBMP include confining bison within Yellowstone and reducing the park’s population from around 5,000 to 3,000 bison.

Each winter the members of the IBMP decide the number of bison that will die. Many—like the ones we saw slaughtered--will be killed outside the park by shooters. The bison hunting seasons, state and tribal, last at least three months. Many other bison—which may include those eight survivors—could be captured and interred at the Stephens Creek facility. From that facility, Native American tribal members will haul the imprisoned bison to slaughter houses in Montana.

Managing Yellowstone’s bison—our national mammal, mind you—with confinement and death is done in the name of protecting cattle from brucellosis. The disease can be transmitted from elk or bison to cattle and cause infected livestock to abort calves and ranchers to lose money. But there has never been a documented case of brucellosis transfer from bison to cattle. Never.

Elk, on the other hand, have transmitted brucellosis to cattle at least two dozen times since the year 2000. But elk aren’t confined to the park, aren’t captured and slaughtered like bison. Elk aren’t treated as livestock, but bison are. Elk are seen as wildlife, as trophies, to be hunted and stuffed. Bison are used as brucellosis scapegoats to be confined and killed.

The way elk are hunted fits with the "fair chase" model. Elk are not confined to Yellowstone. Elk are free to move about the landscape and can elude hunters. But that is not the case with bison. Every year hungry bison leave Yellowstone along that same route through Beattie Gulch. Every year a firing squad sets up on their known path, leaving little chance for bison to elude hunters: Few bison make it past the firing squad. This approach to bison hunting is close to a canned hunt where game is released from captivity to be shot in an artificial hunting situation where a kill is almost guaranteed. 

If the state of Montana allowed bison to leave the confines of Yellowstone and migrate freely--as elk do--then bison could be hunted under a fair chase model in the fall as elk are. In the fall female bison would only be a couple of months pregnant. But in February and March when they are killed in Beattie Gulch or captured in Yellowstone, bison are just two to three months away from giving birth.

The IBMP’s approach to bison management evokes protests from locals, Montanans, and people all across the United States. The protests often start in early January, after the hunt begins and before the capture starts. 

As Gardiner residents, Mary and I have been drawn physically, emotionally, and intellectually into this life and death struggle. We can watch through binoculars from our dining room window as the bison walk through the Roosevelt Arch and toward death awaiting a few miles away in Beattie Gulch.

We joined a local conservation group and worked as part of a team of dedicated volunteers to stop the senseless killing. Mary has found news reports and scientific papers detailing the management of bison and elk. I used that information and our field observations to write chapters about the bison slaughter in two of my books. We have attended meetings where those for or against killing bison sometimes shout opposing views at one another. We have joined about fifty others in a Buffalo Field Campaign-organized march down the main road in Gardiner, protesting this inhumane treatment of bison.

But watching those bison fall in Beattie Gulch is not talking, reading, or writing about unfair killing. This is seeing and hearing it. This is feeling the anger and shock and sadness. This is all too real, and no matter how much we dislike it, the controversial killing will not end anytime soon. Neither will the protest against it.

Since 1985 more than 12,500 genetically pure Yellowstone bison have been killed by slaughter or shooters, according to the Buffalo Field Campaign, an organization committed to protecting bison.

If you want to help change this situation, you can find actions to take to protect bison at Buffalo Field Campaign.  

This commentary based on a chapter from Deep into Yellowstone: A Year's Immersion in Grandeur and Controversy.

Photo Credits: 

All photos by Rick Lamplugh

Rick Lamplugh writes, photographs, and speaks to protect wildlife and wild lands.

His bestselling In the Temple of Wolves; its sequel, Deep into Yellowstone; and its prequel, The Wilds of Aging are available signed. His books are also available unsigned or as eBook or audiobook on Amazon.

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The Good, Bad, and Ugly of Managing Yellowstone's Bison

Snow has arrived and that means Yellowstone bison will soon start making their way out of the park interior and into the Gardiner Basin and what I call “the killing zone.” Bison can be shot when they step hoof out of Yellowstone after the November 15 start of the Montana bison “hunt.” And even before they leave the park many will be captured and shipped to slaughter. Today I begin a series of posts about the mismanagement of our national mammal. While these posts may be hard to stomach, it’s imperative that we understand not only how bison are mistreated but what is behind the mistreatment. Let’s start with a roundup of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

THE GOOD: Yellowstone National Park has been allowed to transfer more than 100 bison to the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in northeastern Montana. These wild bison were captured in Yellowstone and prior to transfer spent months behind a fence enduring quarantine and brucellosis testing. Once at Fort Peck, they will be quarantined and tested yet again before they can roam public lands or transfer to other Tribes across the U.S. 

“Yellowstone buffalo are important to Tribes because they are the genetically-pure descendants of the buffalo our ancestors lived with,” said Tribal Chairman Floyd Azure, in a press release. “The return of the buffalo is a return of our culture. Fort Peck is committed to expanding quarantine and sharing these animals with other Tribes across the country.” Sixteen Tribes are in line to receive bison.

THE BAD: Yellowstone’s controversial quarantine program is a required step to get  bison out of the park and to the Tribes because Montana has no tolerance for bison outside Yellowstone. To appease the politically powerful livestock industry, Montana legislators passed a law making it illegal to move wild bison exposed to brucellosis anywhere except to Montana slaughter houses and research facilities. This managing of Yellowstone’s bison—our national mammal—with confinement and death is done in the name of protecting cattle from brucellosis. But is that even necessary?

Brucellosis can be transmitted from elk or bison to cattle and cause infected livestock to abort calves and ranchers to lose money. But there has never been a documented case of brucellosis transfer from bison to cattle in the wild. Ironically, the transfer originally went in the other direction: cattle transferred brucellosis to bison in the early days of the park when cattle were kept in Yellowstone to provide milk and meat for visitors.

Elk, on the other hoof, have transmitted brucellosis to cattle numerous times—with no lasting harm to Montana’s profitable livestock industry. Elk are not confined to the park, are not captured and slaughtered like bison. Elk are not viewed as livestock, are not under the control of the Montana Department of Livestock as bison are once they leave the park. Elk are seen as wildlife, as trophies, to be hunted and mounted. Bison are used as brucellosis scapegoats to be confined and killed. 

The Ugly: Bison are managed under the Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP). That plan was written in 2000 and is out of date and needs to be updated based on science now available. The plan was written by a court-ordered coalition of federal and state agencies: National Park Service, US Forest Service, USDA-Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service, Montana Department of Livestock, and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. Three Native American groups, the InterTribal Buffalo Council, the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes, and the Nez Perce Tribe, joined the IBMP later. 

Every member organization is responsible for IBMP meeting its goals of confining bison within Yellowstone and reducing the park’s population from 5,000 to 3,000 bison. 

To meet those goals, the IBMP arranges to remove hundreds of bison each winter. Many are killed just barely outside the park in the three-month Montana hunting season. More are captured at Yellowstone’s Stephens Creek facility. While some are kept in quarantine so they can eventually be shipped alive to Tribes, the majority will be hauled by Tribal members to slaughter houses. The Tribes then share the meat and hides. The capture and slaughter lasts a month or more. All told, the lives of Yellowstone bison are at risk for at least four months each year. 

Since 1985 more than 12,575 of Yellowstone’s genetically pure bison have been killed by hunting or slaughter, according to Buffalo Field Campaign. 

The good, the bad, and the ugly add up to a deadly deal for bison, our national mammal. The fight to improve the conditions for bison is long and hard and won’t end anytime soon.

To find actions you can take to protect bison: Buffalo Field Campaign. 

Photo Credit: Bison at top of post by Rick Lamplugh

Rick Lamplugh writes and photographs to protect wildlife and wild lands.

His bestselling In the Temple of Wolves; its sequel, Deep into Yellowstone; and its prequel, The Wilds of Aging are available signed. 

His books are also available unsigned or as eBook or audiobook on Amazon.

Bison Babies Signify Survival

Yellowstone’s bison babies mark spring’s arrival and something more. These beauties with their curly red-orange hair, their long legs, and their big black eyes that see the world anew are living proof that the park’s bison population will recover from another winter of the brutal capture and hunt.

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When born, each calf weighs between thirty-three and sixty-six pounds. Once a calf slides out of mom and onto Yellowstone’s soil, things happen quickly. Within thirty minutes, the calf can stand and nurse. Within one week, it can eat grass, drink water, and start identifying other plants to eat by watching its mother. Within seven to twelve months, it will be weaned and have developed the large digestive tract with multiple stomachs that make bison superior to cattle, deer, or elk at wresting sustenance from winter’s dried grasses.

When a calf stands beside its mother, it’s easy to see how they differ. The calves don’t yet have the prominent shoulder hump. That crane of muscle and bone will come later, enabling them to swing their big adult heads and plow up to eighteen inches of snow from life-sustaining dried grasses. The calves don’t yet have the bouffant hairdo some adults sport. The calves are not the same color; they won’t begin turning brown until July.

It’s hard to imagine this tiny and helpless animal growing to 2,000 pounds if a male and 1,100 pounds if a female. It’s also hard to imagine that one day they will be able to sprint at thirty-five miles an hour, turn on a dime, and hurdle a five-foot-high fence. 

As spring progresses, these calves will play, running and jumping and kicking up their small hooves. That play develops physical strength and teaches them the rules of the herd. One rule they should learn quickly is to not stray far from the group. Hungry grizzly bears and wolves may pick off stragglers. Though a mother will fight to defend her calf, she has limits. Under the commonsense rules of nature, it’s better for the herd if the mother withdraws, loses the calf, and saves her own life, so she can produce more offspring later. 

As the calves mature, some will die from the trauma of a hard winter, from falling through thin ice of a lake, colliding with a vehicle, or giving birth. But adult bison, with their large size, sharp horns, incredible speed and agility, and willingness to defend one another, lose few members to predators. As their capture inside Yellowstone and shooters just outside the park prove, man is the only predator bison need to fear.

But spring's bison babies give hope that the park's bison have again survived the senseless killing orchestrated by those who have the nerve to call themselves bison managers.

This post based on a chapter from the award-winning Deep into Yellowstone, available signed from Rick, or unsigned on Amazon. 

His other bestseller, In the Temple of Wolves, is available signed, or unsigned.

A signed set of both is available with free shipping.

Photo by Rick Lamplugh

Speaking for Yellowstone's Bison

Speaking for Yellowstone’s Bison

by Rick Lamplugh, author and wildlife advocate

Since 1985, almost 11,000 genetically pure bison have been killed in the controversial bison hunt outside the park and the ship-to-slaughter from within the park. These deplorable actions are required by the Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP), supposedly to reduce the risk of brucellosis transmission to cattle. Other goals of the IBMP include confining bison within Yellowstone and reducing the park’s herd from 5,000 to 3,000.

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This plan was written in 2000 by a court-ordered coalition of federal and state agencies including the National Park Service, US Forest Service, USDA-Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service, Montana Department of Livestock, and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. Three Native American groups, the InterTribal Buffalo Council, the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes, and the Nez Perce Tribe, joined the coalition a few years later.

Every year, representatives from these organizations decide how many bison will be killed by the hunt and ship-to-slaughter. The IBMP holds three meetings a year at which the public can comment. I—along with many others—attend these meetings to speak for bison. Here’s the comment I made at the last meeting.

***

I’m a member of the Bear Creek Council and a resident of Gardiner, Montana.

I have two points to make:

First, I—and many other stakeholders—want more input into bison management than a two- to four-minute public comment allows. We want input into management strategies as they develop.

To that end, I request that the IBMP appoint two new partners to sit at the table. One would represent the conservation community. The other would be an unbiased scientist.

Currently, once bison leave Yellowstone, all IBMP partners have a voice in how those bison die. What’s missing are partners asserting how those bison should live, how the range and population of our national mammal should be expanded.

My second point: The resistance to allowing Yellowstone bison onto more public lands in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem can no longer be justified based on the risk of possibly transmitting brucellosis to cattle. Disease regulators and wildlife managers know that the risk of transmission from bison to cattle is minuscule compared to the actual transmission from elk to cattle. While there has never been a transmission from wild bison to cattle, elk have transmitted brucellosis to cattle more than 27 times since the year 2000.

Experience has also shown that the economic hardship that Montana’s livestock industry claims brucellosis causes is really questionable. The infrequent outbreaks of brucellosis in cattle due to elk have been quickly isolated and eradicated. Furthermore, despite those transmissions of brucellosis from elk to cattle, annual cattle sales in Montana surpassed $1 billion six times during the 2005-2013 period. And cattle prices have hit record highs.

Let’s be honest. Brucellosis is not the real issue; sharing grassland is. Continuing to claim that brucellosis is the issue just makes the IBMP look either dishonest or uninformed. Neither adds to your credibility.

Thank you.

***

That’s the comment I made. Others spoke in support of bison as well. I urge you to attend an IBMP meeting. See how decisions are made to manage Yellowstone’s bison. Make your opinion known on how you want bison treated. The next IBMP meeting is April 25 in West Yellowstone, Montana. To learn more about the IBMP. 

You can find other ways to help by regularly checking out the Buffalo Field Campaign. 

Indie author Rick Lamplugh writes to protect wildlife and preserve wild lands. His new bestseller, Deep into Yellowstone, is available signed from Rick, or unsigned on Amazon. 

His other bestseller, In the Temple of Wolves, is available signed, or unsigned.

A signed set of both is available with free shipping.

Photo by Rick Lamplugh