Yellowstone National Park officials are asking for assistance in finding who shot and killed three bison inside the park, where hunting is illegal.
Yellowstone Chief Ranger Tim Reid said a $5,000 reward is being offered to anyone who can help find information that can lead to a conviction in the killing of the animals, according to the Huffington Post.
Park Rangers stated the bison were most likely shot sometime between the evening of March 13 and morning of March 15 next to the road in the Blacktail Plateau area of northern Yellowstone, KTVQ reported.
The killing or removal of any animal from the park is illegal under the Lacey Act and the Code of Federal Regulations, KTVQ reported. The restriction includes animals that are shot legally outside the park and move into and die in the park area. It is also illegal to take and remove animal parts. Those who violate these laws are investigated, prosecuted, and can receive penalties such as fines and giving up vehicles and equipment used in the acts.
Yellowstone said a federal law was put in place in 1894 which banned hunting and killing of animals in the park as a result of a poaching incident in the late 19th Century. The incident involved a man shooting several bison dead inside the park. At the beginning of the century, the U.S. army was ordered to protect the fewer than 50 bison that found safety in Yellowstone after continuous hunting pushed the species close to extinction, the Huffington Post reported.
"Poaching of bison inside the park is significant any time it happens," Reid said. "It's the reason the military was sent to manage bison initially. The protection of bison goes back to the park's origins."
Some bison leave the park and move to Montana, where they encounter ranchers who fear bison will infect cattle with brucellosis, which has caused stillbirths in cows, the Huffington Post reported. While licensed hunting of bison that move into Montana from Yellowstone was sanctioned in 1985, it was made illegal in 1991 due to protests against hunters lining outside the park and shooting the animals.
In 2005, regulated hunts were made legal with "fair chase" provisions to manage the growing population of bison, the Huffington Post reported. The population is currently estimated to be 4,000.
