Greater Yellowstone's Bison: Unraveling of an Early American Wildlife Conservation Achievement

Abstract

The Greater Yellowstone region's bison-brucellosis controversy has triggered troublesome proposals giving federal and state agriculture agencies jurisdiction over wildlife to eradicate a domestic livestock disease. Many of the region's bison (Bos bison) and elk (Cervus elaphus) carry the bacterium Brucella abortus, which can cause brucellosis. Local livestock officials fear bison and elk could transmit brucellosis to domestic livestock. jeopardizing state brucellosis class-free status. However, no cases of such transmission in an open range setting have been verified scientifically. Various federal and state agencies have jurisdiction over the region's wildlife and livestock; these agencies are having real difficulty reaching consensus on how to address brucellosis in the wildlife populations. Montana and Idaho recently vested state livestock officials with jurisdiction over bison leaving Yellowstone National Park (YNP), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal, Plant, and Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has indicated it may propose regulations asserting jurisdiction over bison. An interim bison management plan, the result of a recent court settlement, provides for the National Park Service (NPS) to participate in capturing, testing, and slaughtering Yellowstone's bison, but makes no provision for addressing brucellosis in elk. The region's brucellosis problem could be adequately addressed through a risk management disease control policy rather than a costly and perhaps fruitless eradication effort. Such an approach can be implemented without the unwelcome precedent of livestock officials taking jurisdiction over wildlife.