Baby Bison Put Down After Yellowstone Tourists Place It In Car

YELLOWSTONE, Wyo. (CBS4) - A bison calf of Yellowstone National Park had to be put down after tourists placed the animal in their vehicle last week.

The national park explained what happened on their Facebook page after stories began circulating the web.

Officials said visitors were cited last week for placing a newborn bison calf in the trunk of their SUV and transporting it to a park facility. The tourists claim they were concerned for the animal's welfare, possibly about it being cold.

Park rangers repeatedly attempted to reunite the calf with the herd, but efforts failed. They were forced to euthanize the calf as it was abandoned and began creating a dangerous situation by consistently approaching people and cars along the road.

The national park warns that these visitors' act was very dangerous as adult animals are protective over their young and will become aggressive to defend them. Five visitors were seriously injured by bison at the park last year. Park regulation requires people to stay at least 25 yards away from all wildlife.

In addition, interference by humans can cause mothers to reject their young, as in this case.

After the information that the calf was euthanized was posted on Yellowstone's Facebook page many comments were made asking why the animal had to be put down. The following is Yellowstone's response:

"Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to read this post and share our safety messages. We're reading through your comments and noticed many people asking why the calf had to be euthanized.

In order to ship the calf out of the park, it would have had to go through months of quarantine to be monitored for brucellosis. No approved quarantine facilities exist at this time, and we don't have the capacity to care for a calf that's too young to forage on its own. Nor is it the mission of the National Park Service to rescue animals: our goal is to maintain the ecological processes of Yellowstone. Even though humans were involved in this case, it is not uncommon for bison, especially young mothers, to lose or abandon their calves. Those animals typically die of starvation or predation."