Hundreds of Yellowstone Bison Being Captured to be Sent to American Tribes

Today, January 15, Yellowstone National Park announced that it would be attempting to capture hundreds of bison that were headed from the park into Montana.

"We have had a number of bison who now have approached, and some have crossed out the norther boundary of Yellowstone National Park," said YNP spokesman Al Nash. "As part of our agreed-upon plan with our inter-agency partners we have begun capturing some of those bison and putting them in our Stephan's Creek Facility near Gardner."

The number of Bison roaming into Montana exceeds the number agreed to by the governor of Montana and two federal government agencies back in 2000.

"We agreed to work toward a population of 3,000 to 3,500 bison," explained Nash. "Our late summer estimate was 4,900. We've targeted about 800 to 900 bison that we'd like to remove from the population this year and hunting will not take all of those animals away."

After leaving the facility in Gardner, the bison will be shipped to slaughterhouses and then to various tribal agencies where the remains of the bison will be used for nutrition as well as various tribal ceremonies and traditional practices.