Hazing Yellowstone Bison: A Photo Essay
Posted June 4, 2010 in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
As I recently wrote, the needless and wasteful hazing of hundreds of Yellowstone bison made for a busy spring this year. Here are some photos taken by my NRDC colleague Whitney Leonard while we were in the West Yellowstone area last month.
(To learn more about Yellowstone bison and the controversial hazing (and sometimes slaughter) of America's only continuously wild bison population, see here.)
Three bison cows and a newborn calf amble along the Horse Butte Peninsula in Montana.
The Montana Department of Livestock chases wild Yellowstone bison away from non-existent cattle with a helicopter.
The helicopter swoops in for more hazing.
A young bison calf nurses from mama on the Horse Butte Peninsula in Montana. (Days-old calves are not exempt from the hazing.)
Dozens of wild bison needlessly hazed off their spring feeding and calving grounds in Montana.
Pushing a rock up a hill. The bison are hazed deep inside Yellowstone National Park, even though they just left the Park to find fresh grass on Horse Butte and other areas in Montana. Thus, as expected, the hazing dance goes round and round until the Park greens up.
Clearing the Montana landscape of wild Yellowstone bison -- and all the ecological, economic, and cultural values that come with them -- baffles me.
We met with a group of Horse Butte residents that have to endure the hazing each spring. As you can imagine, they're sick of helicopters and trampled property rights. They enjoy living among North America's largest land mammal and don't want to see the bison hazed off Horse Butte.
Mom and calf near Yellowstone Village on Horse Butte.
This photo says it all. A couple of dozen bison graze on the enormous cattle-free Horse Butte Peninsula in Montana. Look at the scale of the landscape. Why the hell does our government haze bison off Horse Butte each spring?
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Comments
lilian castro — Jun 5 2010 12:00 AM
I didn`t know they treat so bad these wonderful animals.It is so cruel.
Terri Taylor — Jun 5 2010 04:44 PM
Ya Why the hell does our government do this hazing? How can we stop it?
Shirley — Jun 12 2010 06:51 PM
The Government always has to stick their damn noses in where its not wanted. they are most of the reason the Buffalo were almost compleatly wiped out many years ago. Now we Should all take a stand and tell then to stay out of it. The Buffalo were here first.