BILLINGS, MONT. - Rounding up hundreds of bison from Yellowstone National Park and shipping them to slaughter will have an effect though it's not yet clear how great that will be, according to a park spokesman.
Al Nash said that since last week, authorities have captured 569 bison for venturing too near or beyond Yellowstone's northern boundary. None of the bison are expected to be rereleased into the park, and most are destined for slaughter plants without first being tested for brucellosis.
It's the fear of bison possibly spreading the disease to cattle in Montana that helps drive a state-federal management plan that allows for the hazing, capture or slaughter of wandering bison. Brucellosis can cause cows to abort.
Nash said Thursday that officials won't be able to judge "adequately" the effects of their actions on the bison population until sometime this spring. But, he said they were confident that their actions, along with any foreseeable natural mortality inside Yellowstone, would still leave a population of well over 3,000 animals in a late winter-early spring count.
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