Copyright © 2003 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

The snow has arrived at last, covering the landscape in a soft white blanket. Winter finally feels like winter, which is a mixed blessing for the buffalo and us. More snow sends the buffalo wandering in search of winter forage. That wandering often leads them out of Yellowstone and into Montana's deadly political conflict. As if to remind us of this fact, yesterday we witnessed the first captures of the new year. Accompanying the captures was a confusing emotional rollercoaster ride for all of us.

The day started before sunrise with our patrols taking positions near some of the bull bison outside the Park. The usual motorcade of acronyms arrived--DOL (Department of Livestock), USFS (Forest Service), FWP (Fish, Wildlife & Parks), NPS (National Park Service), as well as county sheriffs and highway patrol officers--with an assortment of trucks, trailers, snowmobiles, and horses.

Just after sunrise, four bull bison were hazed near the Duck Creek Trap. The largest bull managed to escape just across the Park border, while the other three were hazed into the trap. The government agents then turned their attention to another two buffalo across the highway near Cougar Creek and the Bear Trap housing development. They hazed the first buffalo across the highway and toward the trap. Fortunately, he managed to slip across the border into the safety of Yellowstone. Unfortunately the other buffalo wasn't so lucky. He was also hazed across the highway and along the Park border. For nearly a mile he was pushed toward the trap and actively blocked by snowmobiles from crossing into the safety of the Park. It was a capture day--there would be no hazing into the Park.

All of us assumed that the four captured buffalo would be shipped to slaughter. The last 139 buffalo killed were not even tested for brucellosis. The last four buffalo killed this season were all bulls, which the US Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) considers to pose a "low risk" of brucellosis transmission to cattle. We all waited nervously as the buffalo were loaded onto trailers.

But then we had another surprise. Instead of heading north toward the slaughterhouse, the trailers moved south. Patrols followed the trailers as they moved out to Horse Butte and released the four bull buffalo. Agents on snowmobiles then proceeded to haze the buffalo further down the peninsula, deeper into the national forest, and even further from the Park. So at the end of the day, four buffalo were tested, tagged and shaved, and released about six miles outside the Park. The government managed to spend a day chasing and capturing buffalo and moving them from the proximity of Yellowstone to national forests much further away from the Park where they can be hazed again next week. Of course, the buffalo themselves were harassed, chased, trapped, confined, moved, and forced to expend much needed energy for surviving winter.

Today we will leave the buffalo in peace. Soon we will check to see how they are doing and how badly they were injured. It is hard to determine exactly why the DOL needs to harass bull bison in the middle of winter, when no cattle are present, but for now they appear to be following their plan very carefully. And despite the needless harassment of bull bison seeking winter forage, at least these four buffalo are roaming free today.

For the buffalo,
Ted