ELK may be culled

[Billy]

this may belong in the politics forum, but..
MSN's front page news - has a story about brucellocis and how the cattle are infected by BISON and ELK.
 Thought I'd put it here for a wider first view.
 Knowledge being power, and all.
 It may effect tags and hunting in general.

[Dave2old]

Thanks for the heads-up, Billy. Historically, it is the cattle that have infected the bison and elk; not a case on record to the contrary last time I checked (which admittedly has been a few years). Yet we don't see cattle being "culled." d

[gregg dudley]

Just read the article on one of aol's main pages too so it must be true.  ;o)  I was just in Yellowstone Friday and had a great time visiting what is truly an amazing national treasure.  My 2 day tour of the area certainly doesn't make me an expert on the local situation, but there were elk all over the place.  Bison, however, were EVERYWHERE.   The published literature in the park mentioned that bison numbers were being controlled by hunting on the neighboring land and mentioned Nez Perce and other local tribes exercising treaty rights to hunt them.  No details were given regarding the process for managing elk populations.  As a hunter, I left with the impression that both elk and bison numbers could be managed by quota hunting opportunities.  I had that impression more for bison than elk though.

We also saw mule deer, coyotes, black bears, moose, and a single wolf while in the park.  It was a great trip.

[Joseph]

Gregg, it is funny that you mention the Bison being thick in the park.  This last winter Montana rounded up over 1600 bison that had left the park and sent them to slaughter in an effort to keep Brucelocis out of the cattle in Montana.  The bunny huggers went nuts including a group called "The friends of the Bison" like they need friends.  According to those folks they were all going to disappear if something wasn't done.  Joseph