National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Yellowstone National Park BISON Montana, Wyoming, Idaho Conservation Update, November 2020 Bison Conservation Transfer Program Engineering a Better Yellowstone Home on the Range Bison graze in the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone’s northern range. It's an exciting time to help lead bison recovery in Be Safe Around Bison Yellowstone National Park (YNP). In August 2019, we transferred 55 male bison from the Yellowstone population Respect bison as wildlife. When bison are approached to the Fort Peck tribes. Spanning six days, 19 trailers carrying by people, they may react unpredictably. 3-year-old bison traveled across the Montana prairies Understand bison culture. Bison use postures and returning bison to areas where they once roamed. It was the movements to display dominance and submission to culmination of years of efforts, and the first ever transfer interact, communicate, and form a society. Approaching of bison directly from YNP to tribes. In a way, it was a an animal head-on challenges their position in the group. microcosm of bison recovery. It took dedication, persistence, Submissive animals will run away, but dominant animals teamwork, and, above all else science as an objective lens to may accept the challenge. find common ground among people with diverse opinions. Dominant behaviors include standing ground, staring, Please enjoy reading this inaugural annual update to bison pawing, huffing, tail arching, head bobbing, and bellowing. conservation in YNP. This issue discusses returning bison to Continued challenge may cause a dominant bison to tribes, ground-breaking research showing bison change the charge. way spring comes to the park, engaging citizen scientists to help us detect new ways that bison shape the ecosystem, and Young bison approach people to test and learn their current population management. dominance in the bison society. When a younger animal approaches you, slowly walk away. If they follow, it is safest to intentionally turn away from them and continue walking Chris Geremia away to show you are not interested in engaging in their Lead Bison Biologist, Bison Program dominance test. Stay calm and try to appear uninterested. Older animals have established their position in the group and often don't test people like younger animals. Don't ever Table of Contents face and challenge older animals moving in your direction. Turn and walk away. Bison Conservation Transfer Program ...................... 3 Spray bear spray and run away when an older bison Engineering a Better Yellowstone ............................ 6 charges or shows dominance behaviors (pawing, head Home on the Range ................................................8 bobbing, tail arched). Begin spraying when animals move State of the Herd ..................................................10 within 15 feet. Making Sense of Numbers ....................................12 The Path of Yell-114 .............................................15 Visit go.nps.gov/yellbison for more Staff .....................................................................16 information about bison safety. 2 | November 2020 Bison Conservation Transfer Program Society chooses the wild animals we brought in to protect about two dozen Yellowstone bison to new areas unless conserve and those we do not. Our bison that remained in YNP. Also, 21 they are first certified as brucellosis- greatest success stories are those of the bison were reintroduced to begin a free. Brucellosis is a contagious disease animals we brought back from the brink captive breeding and recovery program that affects bison, elk, and domestic of extinction or returned to places from at what is now the Lamar Buffalo cows. It reduces production in livestock which they were lost. Take wolves for Ranch. and marginally affects bison health. example. The single image of carrying Decades of hard work led to a Brucellosis-causing bacteria evade wolves in trailers through the Roosevelt population in Yellowstone of about the immune system in early stages of Arch and back into Yellowstone in 1995 3,000 bison by the late 1980s and 1990s. disease so that an infected bison may stands as a symbol of what our society Bison were relearning migration routes not test positive for the first several has done right. and on the cusp of migrating back out months or longer after contracting During August 19-23, 2019, YNP of the park to the lands where they used the disease. Proving a bison does not moved 55 bison to the Fort Peck to roam. At that point, as a society, we have brucellosis takes much more than Indian Reservation in northeastern decided that was enough space for a testing them one time when animals Montana. species that once roamed nearly all of are rounded up. It takes placing them North America. in fenced quarantine pastures with It was the first direct relocation of similarly aged animals and holding and bison to a new home as an alternative People raised concerns about disease repeatedly testing them for one to three to slaughter. It was the culmination of transmission to livestock, damage to years. eight years of compromise between the property, and competition for grass federal government, State of Montana, with cattle. Managers began shooting During 2005-2012, APHIS developed and Fort Peck Tribes. Those bison had animals that migrated out of the park or and verified procedures for identifying been held in a rehoming facility in the rounding them up and shipping them to Yellowstone bison that don't have park for the previous 17 months and slaughter. People drew lines on the map brucellosis. After, YNP, the Fort Peck undergone rigorous testing to show they beyond which bison were not allowed Tribes, the State of Montana, and did not have a disease called brucellosis. to roam, unlike all other wild animals in APHIS agreed on how to implement the This moment was one of those rare the area. procedures. instances where you could feel progress. Controlling numbers is a fact of life for Yellowstone continues to roundup Trailers of bison leaving Yellowstone bison. Today there are around 400,000 hundreds of bison that migrate was as significant a moment as plains bison in North America, with out of the park each winter, but trailers of wolves entering the park. nearly 20,000 of them protected in beginning in 2018, some captured about 60 publicly-owned conservation bison are moved into the Bison Understanding the connection between herds. The conservation herds grow Conservation Transfer Program. wolf reintroduction and bison rehoming exponentially and managers use takes understanding the story of Once in the program, animals are roundups to keep the herds from bison conservation in North America. moved between facilities to undergo overgrazing where they live. Unlike After following a similar path as other different testing phases. The first two in Yellowstone where bison are sent charismatic large wildlife of near phases of testing are completed in to slaughter, rounded-up animals are extinction followed by recovery, the facilities in Yellowstone or on private moved to start or augment other bison bison story takes an unparalleled turn. lands leased by APHIS near the herds. northern park boundary. APHIS and By 1900, there were only about 200-400 Up until this year, rehoming bison State of Montana animal health officials plains bison in North America, down has not been possible because of certify bison as brucellosis-free at the from 30-70 million. Willful decimation brucellosis. completion of Phase 2. Certification nearly eliminated the bison. The allows their transfer across the State forefathers of the National Park Service Some Yellowstone bison are infected of Montana to the Fort Peck Indian made a decision that forever changed with the disease brucellosis. To help Reservation. Bison complete Phase 3 the fate of bison by deciding to help stop the spread of the disease, Montana at the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. avert their extinction. The military was law prohibits the live transfer of Bison Conservation Update | 3 After Phase 3, the Fort Peck Tribes But the benefits of large numbers Many tribes see Yellowstone bison transfer some bison to the InterTribal comes with the challenge of as uniquely linked to their ancestral Buffalo Council who distribute them managing large numbers. The Bison descendants because they were never to member tribes throughout North Conservation Transfer Program cannot completely extirpated from the park. America. solve the dilemma of needing to To many tribal members, returning remove large numbers of bison from bison to tribal lands goes well beyond The Fort Peck Tribes started their the population each year. But it may go finding an alternative to slaughter. It Yellowstone herd by accepting bison a long way to making conserving large is about restoring a part of themselves that completed the 2005-2012 pilot herds more doable. that is missing. study. Sixty-three animals were transferred in 2012 and 138 in 2014. Yellowstone bison have some of the Negotiating more tolerance for bison Today the Fort Peck Tribes conserve most valuable genetics for long-term outside Yellowstone is going to take a 300-400 bison across more than 18,000 conservation of the species and can long time. In fact, we may never find acres on their lands. only be augmented into other herds enough tolerance outside the park to through the Bison Conservation eliminate the need for some population Yellowstone and APHIS transferred Transfer Program. control. In the interim, identifying 93 bison to the Fort Peck Tribes in brucellosis-free bison and moving 2019 and 11 in 2020. A large family Bison completing the program are them to new homes may be part of the group of 50 males, females, and calves transferred to Native American tribes solution to giving bison some more is scheduled to be moved to the Fort to help restore their lost cultures and room to roam. It's not more space for Peck tribes in January 2021.