The bison hunt north of Yellowstone National Park this winter has been so successful that gut piles were building up on the landscape. Last week, state and federal agencies got together to clean up the mess. They hauled off one trailer load and three dumpsters full of hides, bones and guts. More than 900 park bison have been shot this winter, most in the Gardiner area. Of the 900, 75 were shot by state hunters with the majority of the rest taken by hunters from eight tribes with treaty rights. Calling the killings “hunts” is a stretch. Many of the bison are shot as soon as they cross the park border near an area of Forest Service land called Beattie Gulch. These are animals used to seeing people all summer long, sometimes up close, so they have little fear. Due to the harsh winter, this has been one of the largest migrations of bison out of the park in about a decade. Wyoming Fish and Game put out a news release this week highlighting how the winter is taking a toll on wildlife, especially young of the year mule deer and pronghorns. The die-offs could affect hunting regulations in some areas of the state. For more, check out my story at https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/bison-carcasses-cleaned-up-outside-yellowstone-following-heavy-winter-of-hunting/article_57582c7a-bd2a-11ed-9e2d-bf5dc2a95e01.html.
Written by Brett French | Outdoors Editor | Billings Gazette
