BILLINGS, Mont. - Over the past five weeks, about 17 percent of Yellowstone National Park's bison population has been captured and marked for slaughter.

Park officials said last year there were about 4,900 bison in Yellowstone, an all-time high since records have been kept. The population bulge followed a string of mild winters with plenty of sedges and grasses to eat.

But since Jan. 10, 935 bison have been captured at the park's northern edge, including 69 on Wednesday.

Of those, 753 have been shipped to slaughter. Sixty-eight were trucked away Wednesday to meat processing plants in Nampa, Idaho, and in Columbus.

There were still 91 bison in the Stephens Creek holding facility at Yellowstone on Wednesday afternoon. All of them are expected to be sent to slaughter in the coming days, bringing the total this year to 845. (Eighty-seven calves were taken alive to a nearby research facility in January.)

Despite those numbers, Al Nash, a Yellowstone spokesman, said the overall health of the park's bison population is fine.

"That's not to say that we haven't moved a lot of animals through Stephens Creek," he said. "We still have a significant and healthy bison population inside the park."

The annual aerial winter count of Yellowstone bison has not been completed because of weather and a lack of available aircraft, Nash said.

The bison are rounded up as part of an agreement between federal agencies and the state of Montana to reduce the chance that bison might transmit brucellosis, a disease that can cause abortions and other problems, to nearby cattle.

Because the bison population is more than 3,000, the captured animals can be sent to slaughter without being tested for brucellosis, according to the plan signed in 2000.

Some Yellowstone bison wander toward the north and west boundaries each winter, usually in search of food at lower elevations.

During 17 days in January, 673 bison were rounded up as they attempted to leave the park or as they wandered onto private property.

The meat, heads and hides of those sent to slaughter are donated to American Indian and social service agencies.

Peggy Grimes, director of the Montana Food Bank Network, said her organization received 45 bison in January. The meat has been distributed across the state, she said.

"That's a lot of protein that these food banks can use," Grimes said.

Members of the Buffalo Field Campaign, a bison advocacy group, continue to protest the bison removal actions. They say bison that go into Montana should be given more tolerance.

Despite more captures in recent days, there are still another 50 to 60 bison in the area near Gardiner that could end up being captured if they don't respond to hazing.

"This isn't going to be the end of it," said Stephany Seay, a Buffalo Field Campaign member.

But the closer spring gets, the odds improve that the Park Service will decide simply to hold captured bison in the Stephens Creek facility and release them when the landscape greens up.

Park officials have been reluctant to hold captured bison until spring, worrying that too much time in the fenced-in pasture will acclimate bison to captivity.

"We have been having those discussions. It's an important consideration for us," Nash said. "There will come a point when we feel we can hold some sero-negative animals until green-up."

Meanwhile, Montana's first public bison hunt in 15 years ended Wednesday.

The hunt, which drew national and international attention before it started in mid-November, went smoothly, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials. Of the 50 tags issued, 40 were filled.