YELLOWSTONE TO REMOVE 900 BISON – Anyone that has been to Yellowstone recently knows that the bison numbers are up. Bison are an animal that hunters dream to pursue. In fact, many hunters put in for 20+ years to get a bison tag. To help lower the number of bison in Yellowstone, the park is allowing hunters to help remove upwards of 900 bison.
Why Remove Bison?
Many people will wonder why the bison need to be removed. We all love to see bison as we drive through the park. However, there is a problem with having too many bison in one area. When bison congregate together, similar to other animals, they increase the spread of diseases such as brucellosis, a bacterial disease that can cause cattle to abort their calves.
Removal Plan
Not all of the 900 animals will be hunted. Some of the animals will be slaughtered so their meat can be utilized. Other bison will be quarantined for testing. The plan is to remove the 900 animals this winter. If the 900 animals are all removed, an additional 200 animals will be added to the list.
“Removing 600 to 900 bison this winter should cause the population to stabilize or decline slightly but increase back to around current numbers after spring calving”, according to park officials.
Hunting Bison
This new opportunity in Yellowstone for hunters to pursue bison is exciting. Hunting bison can vary in levels of difficulty. There are some bison hunts that can be extremely taxing. Then there are other hunts that can be fairly low-key. These Yellowstone tags shouldn’t require a lot of hiking and shouldn’t be too taxing.
Yellowstone currently has around 5,450 bison, on the high end of recent counts, according to park biologist Chris Geremia.
Many arguments have said that these aren’t necessarily hunts. They are just bison harvests. Would you be interested in one of these tags?
