For Immediate Release
March 4, 2008
CONTACT: Steve Merritt
Public Information Officer
Montana Department of Livestock
406-444-9431
Montana Department of Livestock Captures 51 Bison
The Montana Department of Livestock (MDOL) captured 51 bison Tuesday at its Horse Butte capture facility on the west side of Yellowstone National Park. Forty-one of the bison were taken from Horse Butte, while 10 were hazed from private property along Highway 287 to the Horse Butte capture facility after a complaint from landowners.
Operating under the Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP), state statute and directives from the state legislature, MDOL's bison management operations can include hazing bison out of areas designated as no or low bison tolerance zones, capture and transport to processing facilities, or lethal removal.
"Our operations are based on decades of successful efforts to prevent the transmission of brucellosis from bison to livestock," said state veterinarian Dr. Marty Zaluski. "The IBMP and its precursor stressed the separation of bison and cattle, and time has shown that it's a strategy that works."
This is the eighth winter the IBMP has been used to guide bison and brucellosis risk management actions. Under the IBMP, MDOL works with other agencies to protect and maintain Montana’s brucellosis-free status while cooperating to conserve a viable, wild bison population. Management actions are necessitated, in part, by a population estimated at a near-record high of 4,700 bison within Yellowstone National Park; the IBMP calls for a target population of 3,000 bison.
The five partnering agencies operating under the IBMP are the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the USDA-Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks, and MDOL.
###
