Two conservation groups asked US President Barack Obama’s administration on Thursday to provide Endangered Species Act protection for about 4,900 bison at Yellowstone National Park, where managers intend to cull the herd by 900 this winter.
The Buffalo Field Campaign and the Western Watersheds Project said in a petition to the US Fish and Wildlife Service that buffalo at the park that spans parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho made up part of the only free-roaming band in the country to retain its genetic integrity.
That compares with herds of bison elsewhere in the US that contain domestic cattle genes and the 139 bison that originated at Yellowstone that on were placed on Thursday in 5,200 hectacres owned by native Americans in Montana.
“The wild bison living in and around Yellowstone are the only bison in America to continuously occupy their native habitat since the days when tens of millions migrated freely across the continent. A listing under the Endangered Species Act is necessary to ensure the survival of this iconic species,” Dan Brister of Buffalo Field Campaign said.
Federal and state agencies that manage the park’s bison said earlier this year that abour 900 head must be killed through hunting or slaughter this winter.
The push to cull bison that seasonally migrate from the high elevations and deep snows of Yellowstone in search of food at lower elevations in Montana will bring the population closer to a target of 3,000 to 3,500.
The huge, hump-backed animals are a top attraction for the 3 million annual visitors to Yellowstone, but those that wander from the park raise fears among ranchers they will spread the bacterial disease brucellosis to cattle.
About half of Yellowstone’s bison have been exposed to the disease, likely brought to the park by cattle that once grazed there. The ailment can cause cows to miscarry and jeopardize Montana’s brucellosis-free status, allowing shipment of livestock across state lines without expensive testing.
The Fish and Wildlife Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
The 139 bison originally from Yellowstone that arrived on Thursday at the Fort Peck Indian Reservation had been part of a successful government experiment that quarantined them to produce a group free of brucellosis.
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