Yellowstone Closes Area Around Bison Capture Facility

Yellowstone National Park has enacted a closure around its bison capture facility near Gardiner in preparation for rounding up animals for shipment to slaughter.

However, the Billings Gazette reports that few animals have migrated out of the park this winter, due to the snowpack that arrived late in the season which has a low water density.

Roughly 300 bison are in the Mammoth and Gardiner area near the park’s northern border, but there’s been no big push by the animals to leave the park where they could be shot by hunters or rounded up for shipment to slaughter.

The National Park Service agreed last fall to try and remove 600 to 900 animals this winter from a park herd that numbers around 4,500. Almost 1,200 bison were removed last winter, about 700 of which were captured and sent to slaughter.

With a temporary area closure around the Stephens Creek administrative area the park is now poised to capture animals again, but Tim Reid, park bison program manager, says that they may not capture any bison.