Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
proached closely by anyone other than those experienced in handling them. Bison, they caution, despite
their seeming docility, are dangerous because of their size, speed, and unpredictability.
A former National Wildlife Federation colleague of mine was an accidental participant in the sort of
drama that bison experts warn against. He happened to be driving past a ranch where bison were con-
fined by high and extremely heavy fencing. There he noticed a man on the outside taking pictures of a
young boy within, standing beside a group of bison cows. As he took in this scene, he also noticed a
buffalo bull some distance away, angrily pawing the ground in preparation for a charge.
Slamming on the brakes, my colleague jumped out of the car and climbed over the fence. There he
seized the boy, tossed him over the fence, grabbed the top of the fence, and hoisted himself out of range
just as the angry bison slammed into the fence just below his feet! His bravery and quick thinking had
undoubtedly saved the lad's life.
This story has a rather dispiriting sequel. Rather than being grateful to my colleague and remorseful
for his own stupidity, the father sued him because the son was slightly injured when he hit the ground.
Fortunately justice prevailed: the judge promptly dismissed the lawsuit.
Three bison herds in the United States and one in Canada are essentially wild. That is, they're un-
fenced, although they're managed to one degree or another to control their numbers. One, called the
Wild Bunch after Butch Cassidy's gang, roams freely in the wild fastnesses of the Henry Mountains in
southern Utah (a portion of that herd also ranges near the northern rim of the Grand Canyon in northern
Arizona). Another unfenced herd is located in Alaska. These two herds are kept in balance with their
habitat by carefully regulated hunting. There is also a wild herd of wood bison in Wood Bison Park in
Canada, the same park that's home to nesting whooping cranes.
Then there is the bison herd in Yellowstone National Park, a source of great controversy. Because na-
tional parks have a no-hunting policy, no control has been exerted over Yellowstone's bison. As might
be expected, the result is overpopulation, and excess bison regularly spill outside the park's boundaries.
Because some of these bison are infected with brucellosis, a disease that causes domestic cows to
abort their calves, Montana officials have killed the bison outside the park, ostensibly to protect ranch-
ers' livestock. This seems reasonable on the surface, but there are some very troubling aspects to it.
First, there has never been a documented case of brucellosis transmission from wild bison to domestic
cattle. Second, Montana rejected a National Wildlife Federation proposal to reimburse nearby ranchers
for vaccinating their livestock against brucellosis.
Third, a coalition of forty-six Native American Tribes, organized as the Intertribal Bison Cooper-
ative, wants to relocate these Yellowstone escapees onto various tribal lands as a means of restoring
at least a small portion of the tribes' natural and cultural heritage. Further, these transplanted anim-
als would eventually generate surplus bison that could be used to restock various public lands. So far,
Montana officials have chosen to kill these wandering bison rather than allow them to be moved to tri-
bal lands.
