Posted on 11/22/2011 4:11:22 PM PST by SJackson
Could contraceptives offer protection for the nation's last continuously wild herd of American bison?
At feeding time, residents of the Brogan Bison Facility cluster around a hay bale, blinking at flecks of alfalfa dust that swirl in the air and settle in their shaggy coats. The herd, chewing and lowing, mills in a holding pasture near Corwin Springs, Montana, surrounded by sweeping mountain views and a seven-strand wire fence. Blue-painted squeeze chutes are settled in the dirt nearby, bordered by a swath of prairie grass that stretches for a few miles until it meets the northern border of Yellowstone National Park. This, under a graying sky beginning to spit the first snowflakes of another long winter, is the unlikely center of a contentious debate over birth control.
The bison, gathered after drifting out of Yellowstone earlier this year, are potential subjects of a USDA study of GonaCon, a contraceptive vaccine for wildlife. Originally developed by the USDA as a non-lethal form of pest control, GonaCon works by lowering the concentration of sex hormones in the bloodstream to weaken fertility and the urge to mate. The contraceptive was recently approved in Maryland and New Jersey for curbing the population of wild deer. Now researchers are hoping to use GonaCon to stop the spread of brucellosis, an infectious bacterial disease that causes pregnant ungulates to abort their calves.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
WTF ?!!!
Brucellosis in (an already decimated population) of native bison came via exposure to range cattle introduced from Europe, not “dairy cows” !
Until the introduction of the horse by the Spaniards circa 1500 A.D., the plains Amerin populations were little more than footsore scavengers trailing beind the annual migrations of the “big herd” of bison. While the horse changed all of this it didn’t change the culture from “hunter/gatherer”, to husbandry ! Perhaps, in time the Amerin culture might have changed, but time didn’t permit !
Regardless, IMO, isolating a population of bison by declaring it a “historcial artifact” is contravening known genetic laws. Seems far better, IMO to innoculate the population and make them available for general distrubtion to other herds to enhance the genetic diversity ! >PS
They're doing that themselves. That's why they have to recruit our kids to keep their numbers up.
I didn't raise the issue of dairy cows, someone else did. GO back through the thread and figure out what was said ~ because I was responding to that ~ not to history.
You might also have try elk as well. Some years’ back there was a pro golfer, (Billy Casper ?) plagued with food allergies, consequently having to pursue a similar diet.
Don’t know where you live, but there’s a host of folks raising bison, some even here in NJ ! Most will butcher and ship frozen meat direct.
As for “rollin’ your own”, I’d say visit some sites discussing that. Those critters are BIG ! And from what little I’ve seen not always respecters of ordinary cattle fencing ! >PS
Nothing preventing doing that right now ! In fact, many fans of those old “buffalo guns” do ! >PS
Seems to me a long time back the Park Service used to sell permits to shoot a buffalo out of their herds. They’d send a ranger with the hunter(s) and he’d pick out the culls for them to shoot, help them field dress it and cart it back to the station for paperwork; at which time it became the hunter’s responsibility to tie it to his fender or whatever....Net expense to the government one rangers day’s wages and some gas.....
Then the PETA types got involved and the next thing there were big “roundups” with lots of PS staff/vehicles; even helicopters, plus the construction of large holding/sorting pens, etc....And an auction.....All paid for by the taxpayer... >PS
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