Yellowstone Officials Call for Near-Record Bison Removal

After last year’s mild winter left few opportunities for Yellowstone National Park to capture and cull animals from its wild bison herd, officials are hoping to remove a near-record number of bison to keep the population from growing.

In a September 30 status report for the superintendent, Yellowstone officials called to reduce the bison population by up to 1,375 animals this coming winter. The recommendation nears the record-high removal in 2022-2023, when the park culled 1,551 migrating bison from the population, spurring protests.

The latest status report is the first since Yellowstone finalized its new bison management plan in July, and agencies collaborating on bison management will review the recommendation at the Interagency Bison Management Plan meeting next Tuesday.

Park scientists estimated the Yellowstone herd at 5,449 bison in August, a population higher than average this year. Over the past five years, the average population of bison post-calving has been 5,130, according to the report.

Yellowstone bison are confined to park boundaries due to the risk of spreading brucellosis to domestic cattle, though Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has also documented elk spreading the disease. Some bison are removed each winter through tribal and state hunting, along with programs that transfer bison meat and live animals to tribal nations.

Under the new management plan, the park prioritizes hunting and transfers of quarantined, brucellosis-free bison to tribes instead of slaughtering animals for meat, a removal option now called the Tribal Food Transfer Program. Officials will manage for a decreasing bison population once numbers exceed the assurance threshold of 5,200 animals, the plan says.

Without these management actions the bison population would increase, according to Yellowstone Bison Program Manager Chris Geremia. The growth rate over the past five years has averaged 15.6 percent, “reflecting a steady population increase when management removals are not factored in,” Geremia wrote in the status report.

Geremia also detailed how bison removals are weather dependent: bison are captured when harsh winters force the animals to leave the park in search of food. In mild winters, the migration is smaller and there are fewer bison to capture.

Last winter, just 68 bison were removed: 48 through hunting, 14 donated to the Tribal Food Transfer Program, and six placed in the Bison Conservation Transfer Program.

“The size of the migration is driven by weather which is outside the control of the NPS and its partners,” Geremia wrote. “More bison need to be removed during larger migrations, particularly when the population is near the upper target of 6,000.”

But some advocates like Gardiner-based Yellowstone Voices argue the new plan doesn’t address the underlying issue of confining bison to park boundaries and hoped the new plan would curtail routine culling of the bison population. The “shockingly high” numbers from Yellowstone this year show nothing has functionally changed, Jared Pettinato, an attorney for Yellowstone Voices, told Mountain Journal.

“The time has come to end Montana’s senseless, inhumane blockade and to allow our national mammal to migrate to open and available public lands,” Pettinato said. “It would allow the wild bison population to expand, which would allow more tribal hunting and more bison meat for tribal communities.”

A spokesperson for Montana Governor Greg Gianforte did not immediately return a request for comment. The state of Montana has largely opposed allowing wild bison outside Yellowstone due to brucellosis and has pushed the park to reduce the herd size to 3,000 animals.

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