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Why Yellowstone Culled More Than 1,200 Bison This Season

A bison sculpture in Three Forks, Montana
Eric Whitney
A bison sculpture in Three Forks, Montana

On NPR's All Things Considered Sunday, Amy Martin reported on the second-largest ever cull of Yellowstone Bison this winter.

More than 1,200 bison were killed, more than at any time since 2007-2008.

But unlike that winter, there's now a quarantine facility on the Ft. Peck Indian Reservation that could save many of the animals, which are killed in an effort to control the disease brucellosis. 

Amy Martin joins us now to talk more about why the Park Service isn't using the quarantine facility. Martin produces the podcast Threshold, which this season examined bison management issues in depth.

This interview was produced with assistance from Threshold's Nick Mott.

Copyright 2020 Montana Public Radio. To see more, visit Montana Public Radio.

Eric Whitney is NPR's Mountain West/Great Plains Bureau Chief, and was the former news director for Montana Public Radio.