Wild Buffalo Shot Near Gardiner

I apologize for the delay in posting articles the past couple of months but it's been very hectic around our household keeping up with kids' sporting events. Things should get back to normal now, I hope.

Below is another update I received from the Buffalo Field Campaign.

For Immediate Release: February 5, 2004
Contact: Ted Fellman (406) 646-0070; Dan Brister (406) 726-5555.

Gardiner, MT - Agents of the Montana Department of Livestock (DOL) shot a bull buffalo this morning north of Gardiner. The bull was shot on private property near the Little Trail Creek. Rangers with the National Park Service (NPS) were present.

The bull came down from Eagle Creek last night. Tracks indicate that it was the only buffalo in the area and that it was his first time out of the Eagle Creek Area. Eagle Creek is the only area in Montana outside of Yellowstone National Park where wild buffalo are allowed to roam freely.

Currently there are about 100 buffalo in the Eagle Creek Area north of Yellowstone National Park. The Park Service is required to monitor buffalo in Eagle Creek regularly. The NPS is further required to monitor buffalo daily that approach the boundary of the Eagle Creek Management Area and haze them if necessary to prevent them from ranging beyond the protected area. There is no indication that the bull had been monitored or hazed before being shot this morning.

"As long as Montana maintains a zero tolerance policy towards wild buffalo, we will continue to see buffalo being killed for following their instincts," said Ted Fellman of the Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC).

"The DOL are especially trigger happy this winter. The DOL and Park Service made no effort to haze this bull before shooting him. This will be a very bloody winter for the last wild buffalo in America," added Dan Brister with the BFC.

Meanwhile, on the western boundary of Yellowstone National Park, the DOL is finishing construction of the Horse Butte Buffalo Trap today. The trap is located in the Gallatin National Forest in the middle of traditional buffalo calving grounds. In the winter and spring of 2002, the DOL captured and slaughtered 176 buffalo using the Horse Butte Trap. There have been no cattle in the National Forest land on Horse Butte for over two years.

The DOL has spent over $3.5 million on bison management operations since 1996 that have resulted in the slaughter of over 2000 wild bison. The Yellowstone herd is the only continuously wild herd in the United States. It is descended from just 23 wild bison that survived the mass eradication of the 19th century and is the largest remaining single population of genetically pure bison.

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