The Gros Ventre and Assiniboine tribes who live on Montana’s Fort Belknap Reservation, and the Northern Arapaho and Shoshone tribes on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming have long sought the several dozen bison corralled in holding pens for nearly four years now after straying beyond the borders of Yellowstone National Park.

Ranchers fear the park’s bison carry brucellosis, a disease that causes stillborn calves. For years now, when bison go outside in the park in search of winter forage, they’ve been slaughtered to prevent the spread of the disease.

But some bison, after being declared disease-free, were spared. They’re the ones in the holding pens, and the idea is to use them to repopulate public and tribal lands across the West with free-roaming bison, writes the AP’s Matthew Brown, here.

However, those animals apparently will be relocated to a Montana ranch owned by billionaire Ted Turner, under a recommendation made by state and federal officials.

Turner already owns about 50,000 bison, and his restaurant chain Ted’s Montana Grill serves buffalo burgers. But Turner Enterprises general manager Russell Miller says the Yellowstone bison won’t be served up on a bun, and that the genetically pure Yellowstone bison will be kept separate from the others on his ranch.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks administrator Ken McDonald tells Brown that giving up bison to Turner’s ranch was not his preferred choice, and that his agency already is getting “a lot of backlash over the whole privatization thing.”

The tribes’ applications were judged insufficient, but officials say they’ll be given first choice the next time bison are available.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Assiniboine, bison, brucellosis, Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, Gros Ventre, Northern Arapaho, Shoshone, Ted Turner, Wind River Indian Reservation, Yellowstone National Park

North-central Montana’s Fort Belknap Indian Reservation wants to take a small herd of bison that have been held in quarantine for nearly four years outside Yellowstone National Park. This story says a similar plan by Wyoming’s Northern Arapaho Tribe fell through.

The nearly 50 animals have been spared from a government program that slaughters most bison leaving the park to prevent the spread of the disease brucellosis.

In addition to the Fort Belknap tribes, Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo and a private landowner near Fargo, N.D., also want the bison. Monday is the deadline for a second round of proposals to take the animals.

“We need to get the animals out in December,” says Ken McDonald, wildlife administrator with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. “They’re crowded and the cows are pregnant again and ideally you want to get them out early in their pregnancy.”

Wildlife officials say the animals are living on about 200 acres near Corwin Springs, Mont., and could be slaughtered if no appropriate taker is found.

Here‘s a more extensive version of the story published in the Chicago Tribune.

Gwen Florio

Tags: bison, brucellosis, buffalo post, Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, Native American news, Northern Arapaho, Yellowstone National Park