Yellowstone National Park culls just 49 bison this winter

BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) — Forty-nine Yellowstone National Park bison were shipped to slaughter, killed by hunters or captured for relocation this winter —- well short of officials’ goal to remove 600 to 900 of the animals.

The park has about 5,000 bison, also known as buffalo.

The herds are culled annually under a federal-state agreement that’s meant to keep their numbers from growing and to prevent bison from spreading the disease brucellosis to cattle.

The culling program depends on large numbers of bison migrating into Montana.

But this year’s migration was not very large.