DD: Where the Bison Roam
Gazette Times
Where the bison roam
Round-up necessary to keep animals healthy and in check
Sue Hansen
Venture Contributor
The cloud of brown dust billows up at the top of the hill, then quickly descends the fenced-in slope.
Silent at first, the sound of bovine hooves pounding solid ground soon fills the air as well, along with the excited whoops of riders on horseback. It's a scene straight from the Wild West, with emphasis on "wild."
For the animals being herded down the hillside by horses aren't cattle, but bison. And the riders aren't cowboys, but U. S. Fish and Wildlife employees, with local ranchers and college students volunteering to help out at the annual round-up held at the National Bison Range in Montana.
It's a round-up that corrals every bison to check the health of the herd and cull their numbers to meet the carrying capacity of this federal refuge.
Opened for public viewing, the Bison Round-up takes place every October on the refuge at the corral complex featuring cutting and sales pens, tally shack and electronic scales, squeeze and loading chutes. Constructed in 1993, it sports steel I-beams, 10-foot-tall highway guardrails and catwalks where spectators can look down on the action-packed process of humans handling brawny beasts.
"This is real refuge work that people get to see," said Pat Jamieson, outdoor recreation planner for the National Bison Range.
The round-up begins behind the scenes when around 500 bison are first gathered from across the 18,799-acre refuge and put in pens beyond the corrals. Then, volunteers arrive to man various crews in and around the complex, ready to face the untamed calves, cows and bulls coming through.
It starts with four or five horse riders slowly heading up the hill, spreading out to position themselves for cutting out a group from the herd. It takes precision and patience to prevent a bison stampede. As one rider takes the left flank to separate some of the animals, the other riders move in alongside the selected group to keep them together along the fence line.
"When we start closing in on the bison, they move back and forth, and we have to really watch what they're doing," said Rachel Sykes, who has ridden among the bison for seven years. "They're faster and more agile than cattle, with bigger attitudes. Especially the bulls."
Maneuvering their galloping mounts parallel to the bison's humped shoulders n too far forward and bison will veer behind the riders, too far back and bison will cut in front of the horses n it's a well-rehearsed race of captor and captive. Once confined in the "round corral" where they're counted, it's a symphony of ear-splitting sounds. Massive bodies banging against metal bars. Angry snorts of adult bison and bawling calves. Hand-held cans clanging along a catwalk to keep animals moving toward certain enclosures.
After each bison is weighed, volunteer vets and refuge staff scramble at the "squeeze chutes." As the bison struggles to escape the clamped cage, blood and hair samples are collected from its tail for DNA and genetic information along with testing for tuberculosis and brucellosis on adult animals chosen to be culled from the refuge herd. Depending on the number of calves born each spring, between 80 and 120, a similar number of adults are removed from the refuge.
"Since the bison share this range with antelope, elk, deer and bighorn sheep, we like to keep the bison population around 380," Jamieson said. "This keeps the refuge's grasslands healthy as well."
Some surplus bison, mostly young males picked at random, are donated to other public herds and the Inter-Tribal Bison Cooperative (ITBC) for release on tribal lands.
"The reason this refuge was established in the first place in 1908 was to help re-populate the bison into other areas," Jamieson said.
Still other adults of mixed ages and gender are sold to the public, via sealed bids, to be put into private herds or used for food.
As for calves, they remain at home on the range. Each calf is branded with the last digit of the current year to help determine age. (The lifespan of a refuge bison is between 15 and 20 years.) A microchip is also implanted with a hypodermic needle into the cartilage behind one ear. This gives an individual calf its own identity number for ongoing research at the refuge.
One study being conducted at the National Bison Range is determining what a bison would eat in case a vaccine is developed for brucellosis, a disease transmitted from cattle. Though this disease is non-existent in the refuge herd, biologists are testing bait samples to see which ones tempt a bison's taste buds.
"The research bison like a mixture with vanilla flavor and we're testing it on the refuge's free-roaming bison to see if they choose to eat it, too," Jamieson said.
Bison genetics are also a big concern among all animals in public herds. At the start of the 20th century, when the few remaining wild bison (less than 100) were finally placed under federal protection, bison blood couldn't be tested for cattle genes. Since the bison at the refuge first came from private ranch herds 100 years ago, any bison with positive results for cattle genetics have been removed from the refuge, keeping bloodlines pure.
So those rounded up at the National Bison Range are true remnants that once roamed freely across fenceless prairies. Though restricted today, the round-up offers the chance to see the same wild traits that made the bison America's symbol of strength. At day's end, as the dust settles around the corrals, those bison remaining are released back onto refuge land, still rulers of their national range.