it’s almost like yellow fever.”
A National Academies of Science report released early in 2017 supports Magnan’s contention. A genetic mapping of brucellosis in northwestern Wyoming and into Montana traces the disease’s spread to elk, not bison. The scientists found that while there has been no conclusive transmission of brucellosis from bison to cattle in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem since 1998, “direct contact of elk with cattle is more prevalent than contact of cattle with bison. As a result, the risk of transmission from elk to cattle may be increasing.”69
“Montana makes me laugh because they make [bison brucellosis] sound so bad,” Magnan told me. “If it was really that bad you would prohibit the movement of elk. But they don’t. [Elk hunting] is such a big industry, they leave it alone.”
The maligning of Yellowstone bison goes further when you consider that Montana does a poor job monitoring cattle in the greater Yellowstone area for brucellosis. Magnan cited an audit into how the state Livestock and Fish, Wildlife and Parks departments oversee the disease. Those studies documented that nearly 40 percent of the cattle shipped from ranches near Yellowstone was not tested for brucellosis. “The state really failed bad on it, but yet they can predict to us that it’s not safe for us to bring buffalo up here,” Magnan said with a sigh.
Perhaps in recognition of the National Academy of Sciences’ report, Montana officials are quick to point out that a two-thousand-pound bison standing in the middle of a road in the middle of the night can be a pretty deadly object. Bison don’t immediately flee from an approaching vehicle like elk or deer. A resulting collision can be deadly for both motorist and bison. Of course, a black Angus bull in the middle of the road can be just as deadly. Another issue is that bison usually go where they want to, and eat what they find. Defenders of Wildlife, a nonprofit wildlife conservation organization, along with some other conservation groups has created a compensation program for property owners who can prove bison damaged their property, whether it’s a mailbox they pushed over or a field they wallowed in. If landscaping is damaged, gardens rototilled by hungry bison, or trees damaged by an animal looking for a scratching post, these conservation groups would step up with as much as one thousand dollars per landowner to compensate for the damage. It’s one small way to buy some tolerance for free-range bison.
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