Yellowstone National Park considers vaccinating bison with air rifles

CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- Yellowstone National Park has proposed using air rifles to vaccinate bison to try to reduce the chance the animals could spread a disease to cattle.

The disease is brucellosis, which causes infected wildlife and cattle to abort their young. Bison and elk in the Yellowstone region both carry brucellosis, and about half of the bison in Yellowstone are believed to have been exposed to it.

Yellowstone is seeking public comments over the next two months on a plan to use air rifles to shoot bison with projectiles carrying brucellosis vaccine.

The plan has been in the works for years, part of ongoing efforts to prevent bison that leave northern Yellowstone from spreading brucellosis to cattle.

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-- Associated Press

Photo: A bison feeds on the side of a road near West Yellowstone, Mont., on May 13. Credit: Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[MalikTous]

Bravo, finally something that avoids the usual 'just kill them, they're carriers' non-solutions popular among more greedy ranchers. If protected bison are vaccinated by wildlife management departments, they are more likely to be accepted as part of local nature by cattle ranchers. With the air rifles making little noise and 'hunting' techniques that minimise disruption of the bison's life pattern, this should work...