This Week in Fish and Wildlife we take a look at Montana’s Bison Hunt. FWP has a regular bison hunt each year. According to Morgan Jacobsen, this year’s hunt was very successful.
Jacobsen says FWP issues 85 tags for bison in the areas just outside Yellowstone National Park. 40 each for the West Yellowstone area and Gardiner basin.
There are also 5 backcountry tags that go out for earlier hunts. Jacobsen says good snowfall in the northern parts of Yellowstone this winter means the bison leave the park and that allows hunters to find them and fill their tags. He notes that bison hunt quotas are managed differently than quotas for other animals like elk and deer.
He says the past several years have been hard for bison hunters because the animals have not had to leave the park to find food. Heavy, deep snow this year has sometimes hundreds of animals wandering in areas near West Yellowstone and Gardiner.
Jacobsen notes the yearly Bison hunt is conducted in cooperation with several agencies including the Montana Department of Livestock and Yellowstone National Park.
