Posted on 10/19/2023 7:56:52 AM PDT by SJackson
ut across the plains of South Dakota, over 1,500 bison (Bison bison bison) were rounded up recently as part of efforts to protect the species and maintain the health of the herd. Every year, the Custer State Park holds this annual health check to make sure the bison are thriving and help to vaccinate the year's new calves.
Moving these animals, where the males can reach as tall as 1.82 meters (6 feet) and weigh approximately 900 kilograms (2,000 pounds), is no small matter – and keeping the species safe is vitally important.
Bison used to be plentiful across the United States before hunters, soldiers, and tourists brought the numbers close to extinction. There were at least 10 million bison in the southern herd of the North American plains in 1870 – but in less than 20 years, this had plummeted to only 500 wild specimens. This great slaughter had terrible knock-on effects not just for the ecosystem but for the Native Americans who relied on this species.
“Now, after more than a century of conservation efforts, there are more than 500,000 bison in the United States,” South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a horseback rider who took part in the roundup told the Associated Press. “The Custer State Park bison herd has contributed greatly to those efforts.”
The herd at the Custer State Park started with just 36 animals in 1914, but numbers have risen over the years and the park now has around 1,500 animals. Each year, the round-up allows the officials to check on the health of the animals and decide which individuals will be sold to other parks. Around 400 calves are born in the park each year.
“Each year we sell some of these bison to intersperse their genetics with those of other herds to improve the health of the species’ population across the nation,” Noem said.
In South Wyoming, a rare white calf was born to the bison herd this year, while across the pond in the United Kingdom, European bison (Bison bonasus) are being reintroduced slowly to a small area of the Kent countryside with the hope of all the rewilding benefits these creatures can bring.
There were 10 million ???????? Don’t believe it for a minute.
That many and more, with a range that in prehistory extended into the eastern US.
1 herd would cover what is now 2 or 3 states. General Sherman said if we kill the Indians food we get rid of the Indians.
I wonder if a surplus herd might to well in Kazakhstan?
It is over 1 million square miles, but has only 16 million people. Lots of grassland.
You had to arrive at 3 or 4 am to get a good spot; then wait half the morning; then the herd passed by in about 20 min from when you could first see them to when they passed out of sight .
Overrated.
It’s a lovely park. You’re right about a 20 minute look at the herd. I wouldn’t travel far to see that.
I’ve read estimates of as many as 60 million on the North American continent at one time.
Why do they need to be vaccinated, and for what ?
Major Richard Irving Dodge:
“(The whole country) appeared one mass of buffaloes, moving slowly northward. Only when among them could it be ascertained that the apparently solid mass was an agglomeration of innumerable small herds of fifty to two hundred animals…(this herd) was about five days in passing a given point, or not less than fifty miles deep. From the top of Pawnee Rock I could see from six to ten miles in almost every direction. The whole space was covered with buffaloes, looking at a distance like one compact mass, the visual angle not permitting the ground to be seen.”
When I’m king, atrocious headline puns like this one will get the writer shot
Photog wife got invite to photo/film Bison roundup on private ranch. The first advice was “They don’t domesticate”. Lots of calves, the herding dogs were amazing. The calves were shot with colored pellets after being counted so they wouldn’t be counted twice. The entire enterprise was a blast and quite educational. When a herd of buffalo moves, the earth shakes and everyone except those crazy dogs gets out of the way. Took them down a highway with a police escort too, that was fun.
Lol!! Antivax truther comes to Bison country!
Stand strong BISON OF AMERICA!! DON’T GET THE JAB!!
brucellosis ...
I think Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was the first European to mention the American buffalo in writing.
If this were true, there would be no ozone layer left. Sounds like "the great slaughter" saved the ozone layer AND the eco-system for us.
Says who? The slaughter of bison was great for a growing industrial USA.
hope of all the rewilding benefits these creatures can bring.
Such as what? A psychological lift for urban dwellers?
Why do they need to be vaccinated, and for what ?
Most importantly, for Brucellosis
I believe it.
The continent looks much different today.
Then there were also flocks of passenger pigeons so large that they darkened the sky and when landing often broke the branches of roost trees. When their nestlings began fledging there was a big nutritional feast for predatory wildlife, and for people...
and when the breeding season was over, the area beneath the trees was covered in fertilizer, and subsequently grew excellent forage for deer, elk, and bison. There were enormous stands of beech nut trees and further east, chestnut trees.
There were also the plague of swarms of locusts in the West on the plains.
Much of the Eastern US was covered in vast stands of river cane rather than trees and it was excellent forage for grazers. One of these great stands was in Kentucky with a salt lick in it which drew herds of bison to it. In this salt lick were found loads of ancient bones showing the site had for thousands of years before had drawn giant ground sloths too, and mastodon.
And there were raucous flocks of colorful Carolina conures/ parakeets, a parrot that looked similar to Jenday Conures.
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