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I took a small group on a field trip yesterday to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge to learn about bison ecology. The fella at the refuge and I selected this week because next week is the annual bison round up, and this week we would get an opportunity to see the staff trying to herd bison to the staging areas. We have the annual round up for two reasons: one, it gives the biologists a chance to take blood and hair samples, which is important in maintaining herd health; two, it allows the refuge to decide which animals to keep and which to send out to other programs. Our bison here at the WMWR are the purest, most diverse (genetically), and healthiest herd anywhere in the world. For example, Yellowstone has a larger herd, a much larger herd, but those animals have a lot of cattle genes in them, a result of ranchers cross breeding the animals a century ago. These crossbred critters even have a technical name, the beefalo. Anyway, our refuge sends out a large number of animals every year to other programs, since 2019 many of those programs are Native programs, and the refuge has given bison to the Comanche, Cheyenne and Arapaho, Osage, and others to build up their own buffalo herds. I do use buffalo here, because it is the way that tribes refer to the animals in English. It is becoming more common for officials and young people to use the word bison, but the traditional way to speak about them is as buffalo.
I digress though, I took a small group out and we went on a bus tour hoping to find bison being herded towards the staging areas, and we were not disappointed. Our guide listened on the radio and heard that a herd was being herded along the Indiahoma road so we took off that way. Quickly we spotted the helicopter (using helicopters for herding is the least stressful and most successful way that has been found to herd bison, they are too big and stubborn to be herd on horseback effectively and can go into areas that wheeled vheciles simply can't manage), and soon we spotted bison moving along. We followed this small group for several miles, and then we toured the corral system, which is a modern marvel when you look at how it opperates (it was designed by Temple Grandin if any of you are familiar with cattle you should know who she is), There we also broke out the "bison box" and spoke about how the bison was used by Native peoples, and finally we went to a small prairie dog town and spoke about keystone species and how they interact with their environment. We also spotted elk, deer (who refused to come out of the deep shadows), and at the prairie dog town we got to see a burrowing owl. Unfortunately I did not have my zoom lens, on me and I had my camera in fully manual mode, so my photos of this little guy on the wing are lacking.
Here are some photos:
I digress though, I took a small group out and we went on a bus tour hoping to find bison being herded towards the staging areas, and we were not disappointed. Our guide listened on the radio and heard that a herd was being herded along the Indiahoma road so we took off that way. Quickly we spotted the helicopter (using helicopters for herding is the least stressful and most successful way that has been found to herd bison, they are too big and stubborn to be herd on horseback effectively and can go into areas that wheeled vheciles simply can't manage), and soon we spotted bison moving along. We followed this small group for several miles, and then we toured the corral system, which is a modern marvel when you look at how it opperates (it was designed by Temple Grandin if any of you are familiar with cattle you should know who she is), There we also broke out the "bison box" and spoke about how the bison was used by Native peoples, and finally we went to a small prairie dog town and spoke about keystone species and how they interact with their environment. We also spotted elk, deer (who refused to come out of the deep shadows), and at the prairie dog town we got to see a burrowing owl. Unfortunately I did not have my zoom lens, on me and I had my camera in fully manual mode, so my photos of this little guy on the wing are lacking.
Here are some photos:
