Judge: US must reconsider Yellowstone bison protections

Source: Associated Press

Judge: US must reconsider Yellowstone bison protections

By MATTHEW BROWN
51 minutes ago

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A federal judge has ordered U.S. wildlife officials to reconsider a 2015 decision that blocked special protections for the iconic bison herds that roam Yellowstone National Park and are routinely subjected to hunting and slaughter.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said in a ruling late Wednesday that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could not “simply pick and choose” between conflicting science, after the agency rejected a study suggesting the park’s bison population might be too small to sustain its two herds.

Yellowstone’s 5,000 bison make up the largest remaining wild population of a species that once numbered in the tens of millions.

The animals, also called buffalo, are captured and slaughtered by state and federal agencies and killed by hunters during their winter migrations outside the park into Montana.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/39d5ae9e88bc4e67b342bad7da5f0596/Judge:-US-must-reconsider-Yellowstone-bison-protections