American Notes MONTANA

It brings back images of the great buffalo massacres of the 19th century. Since last October, Montana hunters have gunned down a record number of bison that have been roaming outside the bounds of fire-ravaged Yellowstone National Park, foraging on neighboring ranch and forest land. The state legislature made bison a big-game animal again in 1985, after game wardens had had to shoot 88 stray bison and hunters complained that the privilege should have been theirs.

Ranchers claim that the bison, in addition to damaging fences and depleting food needed by cattle, can infect their herds with brucellosis, a disease that causes cows to abort their calves -- though there are no documented cases of such bison-to-cattle infections. More than 200 bison have been bagged so far this season. Government biologists say the toll will not deplete the park's bison population of 2,700, but animal-rights groups want federal authorities to provide feeding spots for the animals inside the park. "The object is to put a head on somebody's wall," says Ted Crail of the Animal Protection Institute in Sacramento. "That is no way to treat the animal that is symbolic of all our failures in the animal field."