Bison Management

Duration:

2 minutes, 6 seconds

The protection and recovery of bison in Yellowstone is one of the great triumphs of American conservation. This video explains why Yellowstone bison are managed.

Learn more about bison management.

 

 

Success & Controversy

The protection and recovery of bison in Yellowstone is one of the great triumphs of American conservation. In 1902, after years of market hunting and poaching, there were only about two dozen bison left in Yellowstone. Over the next 100+ years, park employees worked to bring this species back from the brink of extinction. We succeeded, and now face the challenge of helping to manage a healthy population of bison that sometimes roams beyond park borders onto private land and land managed by other agencies, where there is less tolerance for them.

A court-mediated settlement reached in 2000 created the Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP), which established a cooperative effort to manage bison in and around Yellowstone. Eight groups, including state and federal agencies and Tribal Nations, play a role in making decisions about Yellowstone bison. Because Montana law limits the areas bison can move outside the park, and because bison outside the park are valued by state and Tribal hunters and others, managing bison is a balancing act between having enough bison to support a healthy population and some migrations out of the park, but not too large a population that could lead to mass migrations and cause brucellosis transmission to livestock, harm people, or damage private property. Currently, the park’s bison population is managed through three main ways: (1) Tribal hunts and state hunts outside Yellowstone’s boundary; (2) capture and transfer to Tribes for shipment to slaughter; and (3) capture for brucellosis testing and transfer to Tribes to start their own bison herds.

Beginning in 2018, the park, in coordination with several federal and state partners and Tribal Nations, started the Bison Conservation Transfer Program to identify migrating bison that do not have brucellosis and transfer them to new areas as an alternative to sending them to slaughter. Since 2019, over 400 bison have been transferred to 26 other Tribes across 12 states, which has been the largest transfer of Yellowstone bison among Native American Tribes in history.

The NPS initiated a new Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process to prepare a Bison Management Plan to address NPS management actions within the park boundary that will incorporate new information and changed circumstances since the 2000 plan was approved. The following cooperating agencies will provide input during the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process: Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, InterTribal Buffalo Council (ITBC), Nez Perce Tribe, State of Montana - Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and Department of Livestock, United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), and United States Forest Service - Custer Gallatin National Forest. The final bison EIS is expected to be released in 2024.

 

A nursery group of bison cows and calves makes its way through Lamar Valley. Due to high rates of survival and reproduction, the bison population increases by 10% to 17% every year: 10 times faster than the human population grows worldwide.

NPS / Neal Herbert

 

Our Goals

Our bison management goals include: 1) preserve a viable population of wild, migratory bison; 2) work with Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP) partners to maintain human safety and a low risk of brucellosis transmission to cattle, and minimize property damage; and 3) honor the federal Indian trust responsibility.

We work to maintain a viable, wild, migratory population of our national mammal.

Yellowstone provides one of the few places where bison live much like their ancestors did: unfenced, and unprotected from harsh winters, drought, or predation. Yellowstone bison also provide a physical link to those ancestors. They were declared our national mammal in 2016 because they’re a symbol of wild America, an important part of our heritage, and a key player in an ecosystem that’s much larger than a national park.

We want to send Yellowstone bison to other conservation areas instead of slaughter.

In coordination with APHIS and their leased facility outside the park, the Bison Conservation Transfer Program supports the transfer of about 100 animals per year to Tribes as an alternative to slaughter. Recent scientific findings suggest that the time some animals spend in the program can be significantly reduced, which could increase the number of bison returned to Tribes each year.

We want to support hunting opportunities outside the park.

Right now, most hunting occurs adjacent to the park boundary, which prohibits bison from moving further into areas where they are tolerated. Yellowstone National Park wants to work with state partners and Tribal Nations to explore ways to safely improve hunting outside the park. Improving hunts would further reduce the number of animals sent to slaughter and help treat bison like other wildlife, such as elk.

 

Bison Conservation Transfer Program

Listen to the story of the first live bison transfer to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in northeastern Montana in 2019:

 

• Home On The Range

  
  

  Bison have lived on the Yellowstone landscape for millennia, but the history of bison conservation has been fraught with challenges. In 2019, federal, state, and tribal partners came together to make history: charting a new path for this American icon and assuring a place for wild bison on the broader landscape. Music: Walking Together by L-Ray Music Hail and Sleet by Harpo Marks Touches by Max Brodie Seek My Fortune by L-Ray Music

  Credit / Author:

  NPS / Jennifer Jerrett

  Date created:

  10/14/2020

  Audio Transcript

  (Sounds of Stephens Creek Facility fade up)

  Stephens Creek Worker: “OK. We’re ready for the first one”

  Narrator: It’s not yet dawn when someone gives the signal. Dark figures in puffy jackets are up on a scaffold. They move into place against the pale sky. It’s quiet. Weirdly quiet for the number of people here and what’s about to happen. Everyone braces. It’s like there’s this giant, collective inhale.

  (sounds of pulleys)

  Narrator: At the Stephens Creek facility inside Yellowstone National Park, the staff works a system of ropes and pulleys.

  (sounds of gate opening)

  Narrator: A corral gate opens. And then a single bison rushes through a curved passage toward what’s called the “squeeze chute.”

  (sounds of gate closing)

  Narrator: The gate closes behind.

  (sounds of squeeze chute)

  Narrator: Inside the squeeze chute, mechanical walls close in on the animal’s flanks.

  (sounds of scientists logging the animal’s I.D. number)

  Narrator: His ID number is quickly logged.

  (sounds of chute door opening)

  Narrator: Then the chute opens. And this 3-year-old bison—a wild, American plains bison—escapes down a constricted alley in the only direction he can…

  (sounds of bison running past and into the trailer)

  Narrator: …and into a livestock trailer.

  (sounds of loading fade)

  Narrator: Many winters, hundreds of Yellowstone bison are loaded on trailers—trailers just like this one—to be slaughtered. They’re shipped to slaughter facilities to reduce the number of bison migrating outside the park and into the State of Montana. Because in the state of Montana, there is limited tolerance for wild bison on the landscape.

  (sounds of truck starting)

  Narrator: But these bison are not being shipped to slaughter.

  (music, then sounds of truck driving away)

  Narrator: These bison are going to a wide prairie on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.

  (music with sounds of truck fading out)

  Narrator: Today on Telemetry, we’re talking about the rehoming of wild bison from Yellowstone National Park to the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. That rehoming is part of a program called “Quarantine.” The program is one of the only alternatives to shipping wild bison to slaughter. And it’s history in the making.

  (music fades out, field sounds fade up: Chris Geremia talking about the biting flies at Stephens Creek )

  Chris Geremia: Let’s go down to the facility.

  Narrator: Doctor Chris Geremia is a wildlife biologist at Yellowstone National Park. He manages Yellowstone’s bison program.

  Chris Geremia: Just be careful, sometimes there are rattlesnakes.

  Narrator: Chris and I are walking around the Stephens Creek facility. It’s midsummer. Weeks before any bison will go to Fort Peck. The ground is threadbare: dead grass and dirt. The flies are pretty bad today. Stephens Creek is the epicenter of bison conservation. Bison are migratory and the states surrounding Yellowstone National Park treat bison differently than other migratory wildlife. And after a court-mediated settlement, Stephens Creek was built in the late 1990s to manage bison migrating out of the park. Today, Stephens Creek is where migrating bison are captured and either shipped to slaughter or held until they can be transferred outside of the park as part of quarantine.

  Narrator: Chris says the story of quarantine is a story of success. It’s the result of decades of collaboration between a legion of federal, state, and Tribal stakeholders.

  Chris Geremia: There’s so many people that want us to find another solution to sending bison to slaughter. They want us to find a way to get live bison out. We’re really just trying to show people how you can do it. That we can move live bison out of Yellowstone. We can reconnect Tribes and bison, and hopefully, in the fullness of time, reconnect bison with public lands.

  Narrator: But like most stories of bison conservation, Chris says it’s also shot through with complexity and compromise.

  Chris Geremia: You know, I kind of see it as you're standing in Hayden Valley—which is a huge valley in the middle of the park. And you’re waist-deep in snow. And bison conservation is like postholing across that valley. You just don’t go anywhere quickly and it’s an awful lot of hard work. Chris Geremia: Let’s go to the original sorting pen, which we call the bullpen

  (sounds of walking up metal stairs)

  Narrator: We climb up onto the scaffold that overlooks the facility. This is my first time up here and I’ll be honest. The view is a little...unsettling. I’m used to seeing wild bison out in the big, green valleys of the park. Rivers and trout streams running through.

  Narrator: But here, I see 55 male bison. Inside an ordinary pen. (music)

  Narrator: And I’m thinking: how did we get here?

  (music fades under)

  Rick Wallen: One hundred or more years ago many wildlife species -- most wildlife species -- were harvested to sustain the pioneering way of people exploring the west.

  Narrator: That’s Rick Wallen back in 2014. Rick used to lead Yellowstone’s bison program before retiring in 2018.

  Rick Wallen: And elk, deer, pronghorn, all the large animals were of very low abundance after we colonized western United States.

  Narrator: But with bison, the situation was even more troubling. It’s estimated that somewhere between 30 and 70 million bison roamed this land before European colonization. As settlers moved west, the extermination of the American bison began. Many saw bison as both a marketable commodity and a means to suppress the Tribes—Tribes who revered and depended on bison. And so within just a few decades, the bison were all but annihilated.

  (music fades)

  Rick Wallen: In fact, at the turn of the last century the only known wild bison were in Yellowstone National Park. There were only a couple of dozen.

  Narrator: From tens of millions to a couple of dozen; A couple of dozen animals hunkered down deep in the interior of Yellowstone National Park. The only wild, free-ranging bison in the area remaining from the original great herds. It’s hard to grasp: such willful decimation. But national debate over that near-extinction of the American bison would go on to inspire one of the country’s first conservation achievements.

  Rick Wallen: It was phenomenal that our forefathers had the insight to preserve Yellowstone National Park and I think they did it partly because they saw what was happening to wild bison across the country and partly to preserve the unique landscape and geological features of the landscape. So this is it. This is the location that preserved wild bison into eternity.

  Narrator: In addition to the couple of dozen animals in Yellowstone, there were an estimated 300 or so bison that survived in privately-owned herds across North America. In fact, a few animals from those private herds were brought to Yellowstone to start a breeding program. And after decades of protection and restoration efforts, the number of bison in Yellowstone grew from a couple of dozen animals to a few thousand.

  (music) Rick Wallen: That's a very successful program. With all of that success comes the propensity for them to wander and roam and now they want to roam well beyond the preserve we've set up here as Yellowstone National Park.

  Narrator: And roaming beyond the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park has led to one of the most complex cross-boundary wildlife issues of our time.

  (music) Narrator: Three states surround Yellowstone National Park—Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. Very few bison migrate outside the park into areas of Idaho and Wyoming. Most of the bison that migrate outside Yellowstone wander into the State of Montana where there’s limited tolerance for bison.

  Rick Wallen: Bison are big. They scare people. They break things. Encountering a buffalo at 70 mph isn't very comforting sight.

  Narrator: But there are also fears that bison could transmit a disease called brucellosis to cattle. Brucellosis is a bacterial disease that can cause miscarriages in animals like bison, elk, and domestic cattle. Domestic cattle introduced the disease to wildlife before the 1930s. Now wildlife in the Greater Yellowstone Area—including elk and bison—can give it back to cattle.

  Rick Wallen: The concern about brucellosis is that if wildlife—let me back up—In the agriculture industry once an animal tests positive it has to be removed from the herd. So it's an economic loss for the rancher.

  Rick Wallen: The concern really is that the livestock industry has worked really hard for many decades to eliminate the disease in livestock. So their concern is legitimate. They've worked hard, cleaned up their industry, and they'd like to see this additional threat eliminated.

  Narrator: In an effort to try to eliminate or at least mitigate conflicts between humans and bison in the State of Montana, the State and the federal government reached a court-mediated settlement on how to manage Yellowstone bison. The idea was to limit the number of bison in Yellowstone and reduce the risk of bison migrating out of the park and transmitting brucellosis to cattle.

  Rick Wallen: So in order to prevent dispersal beyond our established conservation area, there are years where the agencies need to get together and develop a management strategy to cull bison. Narrator: Until Quarantine, there were really only two main options for culling—or removing—bison: Hunting outside park boundaries or shipping animals to slaughter. Hunting only removes a limited number of animals. So shipping to slaughter has been the primary method of culling wild bison. Narrator: But here’s one of the tricky things about managing bison when it comes to brucellosis. It’s elk, not bison, that have re-infected domestic cattle. Elk have reinfected cattle almost 30 times over the last several decades. And elk are not managed the same way as bison. Elk are not shipped to slaughter. In fact, elk roam free outside the boundaries of the park, where they frequently come into contact with cattle.

  Narrator: Because of this, many experts argue that the risk of brucellosis transmission between bison and cattle is not a scientifically credible reason for the differential treatment of bison compared to elk. Narrator: So until there is more support for wild bison living outside of Yellowstone National Park, hundreds of Yellowstone bison will continue to be culled in many years. Some bison are removed through hunting outside the park, some undergo quarantine, and some are sent to slaughter, Rick Wallen: So that is a very controversial side of bison management. Many people don't like to see the animals sent to slaughter. The National Park Service would prefer not to send the animals to slaughter. But it is a mitigation measure to allow us to have the acceptance for bison outside the park that we do have.

  (Sounds of Stephens Creek fade up)

  Narrator: I’m back at the Stephens Creek facility with Chris Geremia. We’re still looking out over the facility. At the 55 male bison inside their ordinary pen. At the 55 bison who are about to complete part of the quarantine process.

  Chris Geremia: So quarantine is a three step process and probably the biggest challenge to quarantine is trying to figure out where and how we do these three phases.

  Narrator: Chris is talking about the protocols for males. The steps for quarantine are different for males and females. But for males, the process goes like this: Phase One is a screening phase during which all animals in the group have to test negative for brucellosis during two consecutive months, which takes about 200 days. Animals that pass Phase One move on to Phase Two. In Phase Two, they must test negative two more times over the course of one year. And Phase Three is what’s called “assurance testing;” it’s kind of a fail-safe. Phase Three includes two more tests over another year. So for males, that means 200 days, plus one year, plus one year.

  Chris Geremia: So when we originally built this pen, the thought was that only that first phase would happen in Yellowstone. Because we’ve never documented an animal having brucellosis after those first 200 days—that screening phase—we thought that would be sufficient. And Fort Peck would be the place where they’d undergo that Phase Two Quarantine and Phase Three Assurance Testing. We didn’t think they’d be here that long. We thought they’d be here for 200 days.

  Narrator: The Tribes thought that way too. They built their facility with managing the full quarantine process in mind.

  Chris Geremia: The facilities up at Fort Peck are much more capable of handling large numbers of animals than what we have here. It has all of the infrastructure, it has all of the land, and it’s much larger than any of the structures within Yellowstone National Park. It’s a great place to do quarantine. And on top of it all of the costs associated with caring for and feeding animals would not be incurred by the Federal government.

  Narrator: But disease-management protocols dictate that it’s only after an animal passes Phase Two that a state veterinarian can certify it as brucellosis-free. And according to Montana state law, only brucellosis-free animals can be transported outside the designated surveillance area for brucellosis, which surrounds Yellowstone.

  Chris Geremia: So we were stuck at this impasse. So I think we got to the point where maybe it makes sense to try and reach the common ground we all have and start getting operational quarantine started.

  Narrator: And for now, that means Phases One and Two happen inside the designated surveillance area for brucellosis which surroundsYellowstone National Park and only Phase Three happens at Ft. Peck.

  Chris Geremia: And something we’ve had to learn now is can these bison actually live in an old weed field?

  (sounds of truck)

  Narrator: I spend the later part of the day on a flatbed truck with Chris and a couple of the Stephens Creek wranglers.

  Narrator: They fill the truck with bales of hay. Then, Chris drives around the pen in a wide arc.

  (sounds of truck driving and feeding)

  Narrator: The wranglers flake bales off the back of the truck. The bison file in behind to feed. They follow the contour of hay in plodding steps. Almost two years of this.

  (sounds of truck driving and feeding fade out, field sounds fade up)

  Chris Geremia: It keeps you up at night at times. Never at any point in my life would I envision that I would be trying to help come up with strategies for wildlife conservation that just don’t feel like wildlife conservation because it’s very complex. But I would definitely do it again in a heartbeat.

  Chris Geremia: You know seeing these animals with those trailers heading north to Ft. Peck, I think that makes all the rest worthwhile. It’s gonna be a good day.

  (Sounds of trailers driving into Fort Peck, Rick Wallen saying “how’s that for some space!”) Narrator: On August 19 2019, seven trailers full of bison pull in to the quarantine facility at the Ft. Peck Indian Reservation. The Fort Peck reservation lies beyond a stretch of northern Montana called the Hi-Line. I’ve heard people describe it as “God’s Country,” and now I see why. Rolling hills of late-summer grass and wheat draw an endless line under a wash of blue. These bison traveled 500 miles to get here. They’re the first of that larger group of bison to be transferred to the Tribes: 55 in all.

  (sounds of preparing for animal release)

  Narrator: The trailers line up side-by-side.

  (sounds of preparing for animal release)

  Narrator: Workers unlock the trailers.

  (sounds of doors opening)

  Narrator: Then, one by one, they open the doors.

  (sounds of bison running out of trailers and out into the pasture)

  Narrator: Nineteen wild bison barrel out of the trailers and into the prairie beyond. The start of a new fate for Yellowstone bison captured at Stephens Creek.

  (sounds of wind blowing in the grass, Fort Peck Tribes welcome song) Chairman Azure: The bison that we just released out here is an awesome event.

  Narrator: That’s Floyd Azure, chairman of the Fort Peck Tribes.

  Chairman Azure: It’s a feeling I can’t express. I mean it's something that—I don’t know—I think you have to be Native American to understand what it is.

  (sounds of wind blowing in grass)

  Narrator: Chairman Azure is looking out past the fences. Past the fences at the group of bison that are noses to the ground, nibbling on bites of grass.

  Chairman Azure: That’s beautiful. I mean, you don’t see anything more beautiful than that. And my ancestors seen that every day and they realized what they had. And now I understand. That’s why they were very protective of the bison. It was their everyday survival and that’s what I feel today—just that, I understand.

  Narrator: Bison hold great value—cultural and spiritual value—for many Tribes. And Yellowstone bison are special because they’re seen as some of the only genetically-pure descendants of the ancestral herds that once roamed across North America. Many Tribes view the treatment of bison as a grave injustice and see the restoration of bison as a source of healing.

  Chairman Azure: I want to get back to where we were back then. Where we took care of ourselves. Where we didn’t have to depend on any government or anybody. We took care of each other. We took care of nature to make sure that we had food for the next day.

  (sounds of wind blowing in grass)

  Chairman Azure: We’ve had a lot of ups and downs since then, we had to prove ourselves numerous times. And finally I think we got it across that we can do this and we will do this.

  Narrator: Chairman Azure says that trust has been an issue among the inter-agency partners that manage quarantine, and that sometimes the Tribes have felt left out of the decision-making process.

  Chairman Azure: It’s the stereotypical picture of the Native American that we can’t do anything. No we can. I mean, it’s just like anybody else: you get the right people in place you get the right attitude it gets done.

  Narrator: And Chariman Azure says the Ft. Peck Tribes have the right attitude and the right people.

  Robbie Magnan: Today was a very historical day, I feel

  Narrator: Robbie Magnan is the director of the Ft. Peck Tribes Fish and Wildlife Department. He runs the buffalo program for the Tribes.

  Robbie Magnan: Personally I feel that we accomplished something finally. We wanted to see these animals come out alive. Our whole goal is to get buffalo restored to other places in the United States.

  Narrator: Once bison complete their last phase of quarantine at Fort Peck, they can be released on the reservation or go to other Tribes and organizations that want to establish conservation herds. In fact, the Ft. Peck Tribes have already transferred some of their earlier quarantine graduates to the Bronx Zoo and some to the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. And the Fort Peck Tribes are actively exploring more possibilities like these with the InterTribal Buffalo Council—a coalition of 69 federally-recognized Tribes committed to restoring buffalo to Indian Country. Robbie Magnan says it’s time for Tribes to reconnect with the buffalo.

  Robbie Magnan: Buffalo have always been part of Native Americans’ economy. We left the buffalo they didn’t leave us. We need to get back to the buffalo and learn from them again. To keep watching these guys keep learning from these guys is my only hope right now.

  Narrator: Hope. Chairman Azure says that’s the overriding feeling here today. Hope for a future with bison. Hope for a future with more collaboration.

  Chairman Azure: I hope we don’t have any more fights over this. I hope that we can work together on more projects than this.

  Chairman Azure: Working together solves problems. No one is any different than anybody else. God created us all equal. The problems can be solved by working together not by separating each other.

  (sound of wind in grass cross-fades with crickets)

  Narrator: That night, Chris and the rest of the group from Yellowstone’s bison management office make camp outside the fenced pasture. The sky turns orange, then starry, and the crickets start to sing. Rick Wallen is there, too. He’s come to help and, not for nothing, to see the years of work before retirement bear out.

  Rick Wallen: Well, you know, Yellowstone Bison for many decades have had a frightful ending when they leave the national park. The conservation of Yellowstone bison should never be about, you know, fright. They’re not a pest on the landscape.

  (music) Rick Wallen: Yellowstone bison are a cultural resource and a legacy type of a species. They’re a noble, native, wildlife species on the landscape and deserve some sort of an honorable ending. And for these animals that want to migrate out of the national park they find that there’s no place for them to go. We spent a decade trying to find a place for them to go and that place right now is a trailer trip to Ft. Peck Indian Reservation. And the Tribes here at Ft. Peck honor them—more than most of the world.

  (music)

  Rick Wallen: So until we can find more space for wild bison in the Greater Yellowstone area, this becomes an alternative to a death trap and a shipment to slaughter and we’re happy. We’re happy to see them find tall grass and beautiful sunsets on the prairie, where their ancestors lived by the millions. May they long live a happy life.

  Narrator: The next morning, we make the trip back to Yellowstone. Back to Stephens Creek. Back to get ready for two more transfers of bison. In thirty-six hours we’ve driven a thousand miles. And there are two thousand more to go.

  (sounds of crickets and music fade out) (Sounds of walking at Stephens Creek fade up)

  Chris Geremia: Last night when we were up at Ft. Peck, you asked me, you know, what was I thinking about seeing those first bison get released up at Ft. Peck. You know today, we’re back at Stephens Creek; here we are again (starts to laugh) at Stephens Creek. Ten years ago I never would have thought that Quarantine was a possibility. And you know, it was a compromise. Everybody had to give something to reach that goal. And each partner has to do exactly what they need to do for this to be successful. You know, we need to trust each other. We can only go as far as we can go together.

  Chris Geremia: My goal with these 55 bison is to show people how to do quarantine. So we need other people to learn from what we just showed is possible. And take up doing quarantine. I think what we need to say is that we opened the door, but we also need to pass the torch on doing quarantine. And these 55 bison, they’ll be teachers to us all.

  Narrator: Chris and I get in his car. He sticks the key in the ignition then takes it out. In the silence we can hear sounds of staff working at Stephens Creek. It’s only a few months until winter when culling could begin, but also the next opportunity to bring new animals into quarantine. Through the dusty windshield we can see the pen holding rest of the bison that will go to Ft. Peck. Chris looks out past the fences, past the bison, past the line of cottonwoods that marks the park boundary in the distance. It’s been a long road. But I think Chris is the kind of guy who’s OK with playing the long game.

  Chris Geremia: I’ve spent a lot of time with bison in this park and I’ve seen some of the most amazing things whether it’s the natural behavior of bison or watching a young kid go out to watch bison carrying his little bison stuffed animal just so excited to see Yellowstone bison and I’ve seen some of the hardest things that I’ve had to do which is to send these animals to slaughter and I just see a place for quarantine. It can reconnect Tribes with bison it can help protect the genome of bison and it has the potential to reconnect bison with public lands.

  (Sounds of truck starting and old fan belt squealing, then background dialogue: Tell me about your truck. It’s a 1997 Tacoma. How many miles? 271,000. (laughing) Maybe it’s time to replace the fanbelt…)

  (music)

  Narrator: As Chris and I drive back to his office, we pass under the Roosevelt Arch. It’s is a 50-foot stone arch with the inscription “For the benefit and enjoyment of the people.” That’s a phrase from the 1872 legislation that established Yellowstone National Park. “For the benefit and enjoyment of the people.” And not just some of the people. All of the people. Just that one phrase. It holds so much. How simple things might have been if Yellowstone had been established solely with the preservation of nature in mind. But it wasn’t. And that tension—that balance—between managing for our ecological values, our cultural values, and our political values is what makes our decisions so hard...and so worthwhile. Make no mistake. We have tough choices ahead. But even Theodore Roosevelt knew that nothing worth having comes easy.

  (music fades out)

 

Relocating Bison

During Aug. 19-23, 2019, Yellowstone moved 55 bison to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in northeastern Montana. It was the first direct relocation of bison to a new home as an alternative to slaughter and was the culmination of eight years of compromise between the federal government, state of Montana, and Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes. Those bison had been held in a quarantine facility in the park for 17 months and underwent rigorous testing to show they did not have a disease called brucellosis.

Up until 2020, rehoming bison has not been possible because of brucellosis. Some Yellowstone bison are infected with this disease, which affects bison, elk, and domestic cows by reducing production in livestock and marginally affecting bison health. To help stop the spread, Montana law prohibits the live transfer of Yellowstone bison to new areas unless they are first certified as brucellosis-free. Brucellosis-causing bacteria evade the immune system in early stages, such that an infected bison may not test positive for the first several months or longer after contracting the disease. Proving a bison does not have brucellosis takes much more than testing them one time when animals are rounded up. It takes placing them in fenced quarantine pastures with similarly aged animals and repeatedly testing them for one to three years. From 2005-2012, APHIS developed and verified procedures for identifying Yellowstone bison that don't have brucellosis. Afterward, the park, Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, state of Montana, and APHIS agreed on how to implement the procedures.

 

Bison in holding pens to prepare for transfer to Fort Peck Indian Reservation.

NPS / Jacob W. Frank

As bison migrate north out of the park, some are captured and entered in the Bison Conservation Transfer Program. Animals are then moved between facilities to undergo various testing phases. The first two testing phases are completed in Yellowstone quarantine facilities (Stephens Creek) or on private lands leased by APHIS near the northern park boundary. APHIS and Montana animal health officials certify bison as brucellosis-free at the completion of Phase 2, allowing their transfer across Montana to the Fort Peck Reservation, where bison complete Phase 3. Afterward, the Fort Peck Tribes transfer some bison to the InterTribal Buffalo Council, who distribute them to other Tribes across North America.

The Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes started their Yellowstone herd by accepting bison that completed the 2005-2012 pilot study. The number of bison transferred each year includes:

2019: 93 bison
2020: 11 bison
2021: 50 bison
2022: 28 bison
2023: 116 bison
2024: 116 bison

The Bison Conservation Transfer program has led to the largest transfer of Yellowstone bison among Native American Tribes in history.

Expanding the Bison Conservation Transfer Program

Currently, there is not enough space for all the bison that qualify for the program. The first two phases of testing require that animals are held within state- and federal-approved quarantine facilities. There are currently two such facilities; one that is inside Yellowstone National Park and the other on private land leased by APHIS near the northern park boundary.

 

Opening prayer by Leroy Stewart, Bison Project Director, Crow Nation, at the Bison Conservation Transfer Facility Expansion Commemoration in 2023.

NPS / Jacob W. Frank

In fall 2022, Yellowstone increased the 80-animal capacity of the Bison Conservation Transfer Program facility in the park to 200 animals. These upgrades, done in partnership with Yellowstone Forever and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, coupled with continued coordination with APHIS (the APHIS-leased facility has a capacity of 60 animals) will result in the transfer of about 100 animals per year to Tribes as an alternative to slaughter.

Conserving large herds is one of the greatest wildlife restoration challenges of our generation. Yellowstone bison remain the model of restoring large, wild herds. There is not another bison population who, by their sheer numbers, restore lost ecosystem processes across large landscapes. The large herds provide unparalleled reconnections of people to the long-lost herds that once roamed the continent, but the benefits of large numbers come with the challenge of managing large numbers. The Bison Conservation Transfer Program cannot solve the dilemma of needing to remove large numbers of bison from the population each year, but it may make conserving large herds more doable.

Yellowstone bison have some of the most valuable genetics for long-term conservation of the species and can only be augmented into other herds through the Bison Conservation Transfer Program. Bison completing the program are transferred to Native American Tribes to help restore their lost cultures and ways of life. Yellowstone bison may mean more to them than most other people. Entire cultures are intertwined with bison and the great herds that once roamed North America.

 

"I longed for that time when Tatanka Sicun, Buffalo Spirit as ancestor, mingled with mine...
... then yesterday it came...
... it came in the form of trucks and trailers carrying sacred beings into the realm of our higher plains..."
-Lois Red Elk, member of Fort Peck Sioux, about the 2019 bison transfer

Many Tribes see Yellowstone bison as uniquely linked to their ancestral descendants because they were never completely extirpated from the park. To many Tribal members, returning bison to Tribal lands goes well beyond finding an alternative to slaughter. It is about restoring a part of themselves that is missing.

Negotiating more tolerance for bison outside Yellowstone is going to take a long time. In fact, we may never find enough tolerance outside the park to eliminate the need for some population control. In the interim, identifying brucellosis-free bison and moving them to new homes may be part of the solution to giving bison more room to roam. It is the beginning of returning Yellowstone bison to the lands where they once roamed.

 

Release of 55 Yellowstone bison on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in 2019.

NPS / Jacob W. Frank

Questions & Answers

 

Management

Who manages Yellowstone bison?

Five federal/state agencies and three Tribal entities make decisions about Yellowstone bison in a cooperative effort called the Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP). These include the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes, the InterTribal Buffalo Council, Montana Department of Livestock, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, the National Park Service (Yellowstone National Park), the Nez Perce Tribe, and the U.S. Forest Service (Custer-Gallatin National Forest).

How many bison are in Yellowstone?

In the summer of 2023, park biologists counted 4,830 bison.

Why are bison killed every winter?

• Bison are killed because they do not have enough room to roam. Yellowstone encompasses a limited amount of habitat. Montana allows very limited numbers of bison in small areas adjacent to the park due to fears they might transmit brucellosis to cattle and out of concerns about competition with cattle for grass, human safety, and property damage.

• Bison are infected with the disease brucellosis which prohibits transferring them alive to new places, unless they are first certified disease-free. Certification involves a multi-year process including holding animals in fenced pastures near the park boundary and only about 30% of animals qualify for the program.

• Yellowstone bison reproduce and survive at relatively high rates compared to many other large, wild, mammal species. The bison population currently increases by 10% to 17% per year.

• Currently, predation by bears and wolves has little effect in reducing the bison numbers. Bison are massive animals that defend themselves as a group, making them more difficult to attack than animals such as elk.

• By itself, hunting outside the park has not been effective at limiting bison numbers because concentrated hunting pressure along the park boundary often causes bison to return to the security of the national park where hunting is prohibited.

How many bison were killed in winter 2022/2023?

The 2022/2023 winter saw the largest and earliest migration of bison ever recorded, including about 4,000 bison migrating north of Mammoth Hot Springs into the state of Montana. At least 1,173 bison were removed during the 2022/2023 winter, including 1,085+ bison harvested outside the park in Montana and 88 bison captured at the Stephens Creek facility and sent to slaughter. Additionally, Yellowstone placed 282 bison into the Bison Conservation Transfer Program.

What is planned for the population in winter 2023/2024?

The NPS no longer sets a bison removal target. As the population has increased over time, IBMP partners continue to meet the goals of preserving a wild population while minimizing the chance that bison transmit brucellosis to livestock. If the migration occurs, the NPS may capture bison to: 1) enter up to 100 new animals into the Bison Conservation Transfer Program during the 2023/2024 winter; or 2) if necessary, lower the number of bison exiting the park to reduce conflicts. Bison that do not qualify for live transfer may be transferred to American Indian Tribes for slaughter and distribution of meat and hides to their members.

Is Yellowstone's bison population healthy?

Yes. Yellowstone’s bison population has grown steadily over the last 50+ years: from 500 animals in 1970 to nearly 5,000 in 2023. Yellowstone bison represent a unique source of genetic diversity.

How do bison impact the Yellowstone ecosystem?

Yellowstone conducted a 10-year study of bison to better understand bison impacts on the park ecosystem. Learn more about our findings, in addition to the information below, in our grazing issue of Yellowstone Science.

Bison do not just aimlessly eat grass.

We discovered that bison change the way spring happens across Yellowstone’s vast grasslands. Bison return to graze the same areas repeatedly at such intensity that it turns back the clock on forage green-up, hitting reset on springtime. This behavior keeps plants growing, although the plants never appear more than a few inches tall. Short, young plants provide the best foods for migrating animals. Evidence over the last decade supports the notion that migrating ungulates surf the green wave, or the progression of plants emerging in spring from river valleys to mountaintops. Many mule deer and elk, for example, have been shown to be in sync with spring green-up, which lets them eat high quality foods as they migrate. However, bison and their intense grazing lets them fall behind the wave of spring because they create grazing lawns as an alternative. That finding sets bison apart from other North American ungulates. Bison are not just moving to find the best food; they are creating the best food by how they move. Without several thousands of bison moving freely on the landscape in sync, the springtime season of plant growth would be shorter, the land would not be as green, and plants would not be as nutritious.

Our research suggests that Yellowstone benefits from the large roaming bison herds. Soils are nutrient-rich, uncompacted, and have the necessary biological, chemical, and physical properties to support the ecosystem. Grazing increases the rates that nutrients are recycled back to plants and also preserves soil moisture. Nutrients and water are the two ingredients that plants need to grow. As a result, grazing stimulates plants to regrow, making plants more productive than they would be if bison weren’t grazing the park. More plant matter can mean more bison and other herbivores, more predators relying on the herbivores for food, and an overall healthier ecosystem.

View more bison research in Yellowstone.

Aren't bison protected as our national mammal?

No: that designation did not provide any special protection to bison. Read more about the National Bison Legacy Act.

Why do bison leave the park?

Bison migrate to lower elevations where food is more available (less snow) just like bighorn sheep, elk, mule deer, pronghorn, and many other animals. They return to the park’s higher elevation grasslands to feed during summer.

Why do states treat bison differently than other wildlife when they leave the park?

Bison are not allowed to move freely outside Yellowstone due to fears they might transmit brucellosis to cattle, and out of concerns about competition with cattle for grass, human safety, and property damage. Elk are also infected with brucellosis, but their movements outside the park are not restricted. State governments control the management of wildlife outside Yellowstone (unless a species is federally listed as threatened or endangered).

Why don't you force surrounding states to change their policies?

Outside Yellowstone, states manage wildlife and Yellowstone cannot force them to tolerate more migrating bison.

Why don't you ignore or withdraw from the IBMP?

Yellowstone isn't big enough to manage a migratory species like bison on its own. Bison conservation is a shared responsibility that crosses many political boundaries. Withdrawing from the IBMP would make it more difficult to collaborate with the land management agencies and Tribes that share an interest in what happens to bison when they leave the park. Additionally, Yellowstone’s superintendent is not the signatory of the original IBMP. The agreement was signed and approved by the Secretary of the Interior, who would need to make any decision about withdrawing.

How are bison captured?

On behalf of the IBMP, bison are captured near the north boundary of Yellowstone as they migrate out of the park. Fences guide them into enclosures, so they wander in on their own or are sometimes guided in by riders on horseback.

How are bison killed?

We transfer captured bison to Tribes who transport them to slaughterhouses for processing.

What happens to the meat?

Tribal Nations distribute the bison meat and hides to their members.

Does Yellowstone profit from shipments of bison?

No: we receive no payment for bison shipped from our capture facility.

Are animals abused at Stephens Creek?

No. The safety of people and animals is our top priority at Stephens Creek. The Humane Society has evaluated the operation twice, and each time we've adopted their recommendations. During 2020, we received expert training and worked to improve low-stress handling of bison during handling and processing. Two old photos are often used to falsely depict our handling practices at Stephens Creek. One shows a bison being held with a nose ring during brucellosis testing, a practice we haven’t used in many years (we now have a hydraulic chute that holds the animals relatively still during testing). The second shows a bison being carried by a front-end loader: a photo that was taken outside the park, most likely after a bison was shot by a hunter or hit by a car. Adult bison can be very large and heavy and often times require heavy equipment to move carcasses from vehicle accident scenes.

Does culling put the bison population at risk?

No. Yellowstone’s bison population has grown steadily over the last 50+ years: from 500 animals in 1970 to nearly 5,000 in 2023. Each year, the bison population in the park increases by 10%-17%. Along with elk, bison are the most numerous large mammals in Yellowstone, and periodic culling will not alter that fact. The sizes of most wild ungulate populations in North America are limited by hunting and/or captures and removals.

Are you catering to the livestock industry?

We are legally obligated to follow the directives of the IBMP. Each member of the IBMP has a different perspective on the conservation of wild bison, so conflict resolution is an integral part of the management strategy. We would like to reduce the shipment of bison to slaughter and have implemented the Bison Conservation Transfer Program to reduce numbers slaughtered.

 

Brucellosis

What is brucellosis?

• Brucellosis is a bacterial disease that can induce abortions or stillbirths in infected animals but does not kill them. For ranchers, brucellosis has an economic impact because it affects the reproductive rate and marketability of their animals.
• Up to 60% of Yellowstone bison test positive for exposure to brucellosis (depending on age and sex).
• Brucellosis has been eradicated in cattle herds across most of the United States. Bison and elk in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem persist as one of the last reservoirs of infection.
• Brucellosis was introduced to Yellowstone bison and elk by domestic cattle in the early 1900s.

Is brucellosis really a threat?

Yes. People both understate and overstate the risk of brucellosis transmission. Transmission of brucellosis from bison to livestock is possible because in late winter, bison migrate to low elevation areas outside the park where livestock are concentrated. At this time, bison are late in their pregnancy: the most probable time for infected animals to abort fetuses that might be found by other animals. The fact that there's never been a documented transmission of brucellosis from Yellowstone bison to cattle does not mean it couldn't happen. Rather, it’s a testament to the diligent management efforts put forth by the state of Montana and the National Park Service to prevent commingling of bison and cattle during the time period when transmission is most likely.

Do other animals carry brucellosis?

Yes. Over the last two decades, more than 20 livestock operators in the three states surrounding Yellowstone discovered brucellosis in their animals. In each case, wild elk transmitted the disease.

Why don't local ranchers vaccinate their livestock?

They do, but there is no vaccine that is 100% effective at reducing abortions due to brucellosis or eliminating the potential of infection from wildlife.

Why can't bison that test negative for brucellosis be allowed to live?

The NPS initiated the Bison Conservation Transfer Program to identify bison that don't have brucellosis and transfer them to new areas as an alternative to sending them to slaughter. Since 2019, over 400 bison have been transferred to 26 Tribes across 12 states. Continued coordination with APHIS will result in transferring about 100 animals per year to Tribes as an alternative to slaughter.

Why can't bison be vaccinated against brucellosis?

• Vaccinating wild bison against brucellosis with existing vaccines would not substantially suppress the disease and could have unintended, adverse effects on the bison population in Yellowstone.
• There is no easily distributed, highly effective vaccine: current vaccines would only create a 10% to 15% reduction in infection, and immune protection is short-lived.
• Even if we reduced the prevalence of brucellosis in bison, they could be re-infected by elk.
• For more details, read the final Environmental Impact Statement that evaluated the potential of remote vaccination of bison.

 

Alternatives

Are there alternatives to capture and shipment to slaughter?

In the history of North America, only humans, disease, predation, and starvation have successfully controlled bison numbers. Hunting outside the park is the preferred method for controlling the population today, but bison need greater access to land to disperse beyond our boundaries and pioneer new areas. Currently, the area where bison can be hunted is very small, and bison often respond to the hunting pressure by returning to the security of the national park (where hunting is prohibited). In addition, the NPS initiated the Bison Conservation Transfer Program to identify bison that don't have brucellosis and transfer them to new areas as an alternative to sending them to slaughter. Since 2019, over 400 bison have been transferred to 26 Tribes across 12 states. Continued coordination with APHIS will result in transferring about 100 animals per year to Tribes as an alternative to slaughter.

Why can't Yellowstone ship live bison to other areas?

Right now, it’s against state and federal laws to move wild bison exposed to brucellosis anywhere except to meat processing and research facilities. The NPS has initiated the Bison Conservation Transfer Program to identify bison that do not have brucellosis and transfer them to new areas as an alternative to sending them to slaughter.

How does the Bison Conservation Transfer Program work?

Some captured bison that test negative for brucellosis exposure are moved into double-fenced pastures and held until they all test negative for two to three consecutive months. Any animals that convert to testing positive are removed and shipped to slaughter. The remainder of the bison then undergo additional testing for brucellosis with timelines and criteria that vary by age and sex. At the end of this testing protocol, APHIS and state of Montana animal health officials certify the bison as brucellosis-free. This certification allows their transfer across the state of Montana to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. Bison complete one year of assurance testing at the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, after which the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes transfer some bison to the InterTribal Buffalo Council who distribute them to member Tribes throughout North America.

What is the benefit of the Bison Conservation Transfer Program?

This program reduces the need for capture/slaughter operations and promotes the restoration of plains bison to suitable areas of the country.

Why can't hunting alone control the bison population?

To date, hunting outside the park has been ineffective at limiting bison numbers. The area where bison can be hunted is very small, and bison often respond to concentrated hunting pressure along the park boundary by returning to the security of the national park where hunting is prohibited. For hunting to become more effective, bison need greater access to public lands outside the park, like wild elk and other animals, so they can disperse beyond our boundaries and pioneer new areas.

Why doesn't Yellowstone allow hunting in the park?

Federal law (National Park Protection Act, 1894) prohibits hunting in Yellowstone. Because of this prohibition, Yellowstone offers some of the best wildlife viewing opportunities in the world. This prohibition also supports our goal to manage the park so that human activities have as little effect on natural processes as possible. Allowing hunting in Yellowstone would drastically affect the behavior of animals and change the experience for people who come to watch them.

What about fertility control in bison?

No fertility control methods that are affordable, easily delivered, highly effective, and reversible are currently available for delivery to wild bison spread across a vast landscape. Fertility control could have unintended, adverse effects on the bison population in Yellowstone.

 

More Information

 

 

Duration:

1 minute, 12 seconds

A Yellowstone field crew collects bison DNA samples during the rut.

 

Bison Management News