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        May 1, 2008

(CNN Student News) -- May 1, 2008 Where Buffalo Roam... - Learn about the shrinking bison population in Yellowstone National Park. Shoutout RAMSAY: Time for the Shoutout! What is the oldest national park in the U.S.? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it: A) Glacier Bay, B) Yellowstone, C) Yosemite or D) Badlands? You've got three seconds -- GO! President Ulysses Grant made Yellowstone the country's first national park back in 1872! That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Where Buffalo Roam... AZUZ: Bison, or buffalo, they are the same thing, have been roaming around Yellowstone since long before it became a national park. In fact, the Park Service says the area's been home to bison since prehistoric times, the only place in the continental U.S. that can make that claim. But the bison population is decreasing and fast! Yellowstone officials estimate that in the last six months, the park's herd has dropped from 4,700 to about 2,300! Dan Simon explains some of the reasons why. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DAN SIMON, CNN REPORTER: It's a sight once considered unthinkable in Yellowstone National Park: more than twenty bison loaded onto a truck and headed to a slaughterhouse. In the last few months, the numbers of those slaughtered hit a record high: more than 1,400 bison, one third of Yellowstone's population, rounded up and killed. MIKE MEASE, BUFFALO FIELD CAMPAIGN: There has never been a slaughter like this since the 1800s in this country of the bison, and it's disgusting. SIMON: The bison, or American buffalo as they're often called, were hunted and practically wiped out in the late 1800s. But today, Yellowstone is overflowing with them. This right here is the problem. You can see a bison on the street. We've seen some cars having to dodge the animal. Obviously, we don't know where it's going to go. Hopefully, back into the park. AL NASH, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE: Food is difficult and scarce to come by at the end of winter. They're leaving the interior of the park to lower places, in part, to look for food. There's limited tolerance for bison outside the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park. SIMON: Limited tolerance because of fears the bison carry a disease called brucellosis.The disease, which causes pregnant animals to abort their young, can spread to cattle. For ranchers, the stakes are high. MARTIN DAVIS, RANCHER: Montana has spent millions of dollars through the years to get brucellosis eradicated from our livestock, and to put that in jeopardy, no one wants that to happen. SIMON: Critics call the killing an overreaction. They say there are no documented cases of bison giving brucellosis to cattle. MEASE: I mean it's hype, it's a hysteria. And it's not a fatal disease. SIMON: With so many killed, the slaughtering for now has now been curtailed to only those that cannot be herded back into Yellowstone. And under pressure, federal and state officials announced they will lease private land where some bison can freely roam outside the park. But it's just a first step. Hundreds each year are still at risk of being slaughtered, and that will keep fueling a controversy over a national icon. Dan Simon, CNN, in Yellowstone National Park. (END VIDEO CLIP)

    
 

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