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Influences on Upland System Structure IV: The Ungulate Guild

Frederic H. Wagner

in Yellowstone's Destabilized Ecosystem: Elk Effects, Science, and Policy Conflict

Nutritional research on northern-range elk and park-wide bison shows catabolic decline and mortality increase through winters, and as functions of population size and winter severity, collectively ... More

Nutritional research on northern-range elk and park-wide bison shows catabolic decline and mortality increase through winters, and as functions of population size and winter severity, collectively indicating usurpation of the range resource and intraspecific competition. Bighorn sheep numbers declined from the 1920s until about the 1960s, increased during and immediately after the elk population low, and then declined again in the 1980s and 1990s when they occurred at low population viability. Contrary to one hypothesis, the bison population increased steadily from the 1960s, except for slight population reductions in the 1980s and 1990s, until it reached ~3,000 when animals began leaving the park. Mule deer declined from the early 1900s to 1958-1970, and increased substantially by the 1980s and 1990s when they began wintering outside the park. Pronghorns, numbering in the thousands in early park years, now exist at low population viability. With speculative estimates, elk numbers and biomass increased 3.2x between park establishment and the 1990s; the other four species together declined 67% in numbers and 40% in biomass.Less

The North American Bison

George C. Frison

in Survival by Hunting: Prehistoric Human Predators and Animal Prey

This chapter examines the earliest North American bison based on paleontological and archaeological records. It explains that the first bison native to North America was Bison latifrons which is the ... More

This chapter examines the earliest North American bison based on paleontological and archaeological records. It explains that the first bison native to North America was Bison latifrons which is the largest North American fossil bison and that as taxonomic trends changed, the late Pleistocene and early Holocene bison began to fall into two species designations, Bison antiques and Bison occidentalis. It contends that the behavioral patterns of the extinct species resembled those of the modern species because of many similar strategies for bison hunting over more than 11,000 years.Less

Buffalo Crusaders: The Sacred Struggle for America’s Last Wild and Pure Herd

Justin Farrell

in The Battle for Yellowstone: Morality and the Sacred Roots of Environmental Conflict

This chapter examines the bitter, long-lasting, and sometimes violent dispute over the Yellowstone bison herd—America's only remaining genetically pure and free-roaming herd, which once numbered more ... More

This chapter examines the bitter, long-lasting, and sometimes violent dispute over the Yellowstone bison herd—America's only remaining genetically pure and free-roaming herd, which once numbered more than 30 million but was exterminated down to a mere 23 single animals. This intractable issue hinges on current scientific disagreements about the biology and ecology of the disease brucellosis (Brucella abortus). But in recent years, a more radical, grassroots, and direct action activist group called the Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC) has found success by shifting the focus of the debate away from science, toward the deeper religious dimensions of the issue. The chapter shows how the infusion of the conflict with moral and spiritual feeling has brought to the fore deeper questions that ultimately needed to be answered, thus making this a public religious conflict as much as a scientific one, sidestepping rabbit holes of intractability. It observes the ways in which BFC activists engaged in a phenomenon called moral and religious “muting.” This has theoretical implications for understanding how certain elements of culture (e.g., individualism and moral relativism) can organize and pattern others—especially in post hoc explanations of religiously motivated activism.Less

Cow to Cow

Dale F. Lott

in American Bison: A Natural History

This chapter describes the simpler, more durable, but equally important relationships cows develop with one another. The forebears of bison cows must have experienced both plenty and scarcity in ... More

This chapter describes the simpler, more durable, but equally important relationships cows develop with one another. The forebears of bison cows must have experienced both plenty and scarcity in their evolutionary history — times when dominance was worth fighting for and times when it wasn't. Changing circumstances select for changeable behavior, with different strategies for different times and places. The bison pay the costs of striving for dominance when the benefits are high, and don't when the benefits are low. Being a dominant member of a group has high potential payoff. In Yellowstone Park, subordinates searched more and harvested less than dominants. A dominant will eat everything it clears and some that it doesn't clear. A subordinate will eat only part of what it clears.Less

Temperature Control

Dale F. Lott

in American Bison: A Natural History

Bison seldom if ever die of heat, but they often die of cold. The dark coat that makes the sun a nuisance in summer may be a lifesaver in winter. Bison evolved in really terrible winters; and even ... More

Bison seldom if ever die of heat, but they often die of cold. The dark coat that makes the sun a nuisance in summer may be a lifesaver in winter. Bison evolved in really terrible winters; and even now, especially severe winters kill many of the old and the young. Every calorie of heat absorbed from the sun is a calorie the bison does not have to manufacture from the scarce forage. Bison cut their energy output by losing their appetite. They eat less and produce less heat — and not just because food is scarcer in winter. There's more to hair than color; it also offers insulation. Bison wallow in the summer, especially during the middle of the day. Wallowing puts soil into and onto their coat.Less

Ancestors and Relatives

Dale F. Lott

in American Bison: A Natural History

Every species has a history, and that history is a part of the species as much as an individual's history is a part of the individual. It both creates and limits the species' possibilities. This ... More

Every species has a history, and that history is a part of the species as much as an individual's history is a part of the individual. It both creates and limits the species' possibilities. This chapter, on ancestors and relatives, traces the bison lineage, especially in North America, and establishes the place of the modern species Bison bison, which emerged only about 5,000 years ago. The first bison to cross Beringia were not the first bison. Bison branched off from the primitive cow family line — Leptobos — about a million years ago. The first bison were small-bodied, small-horned, fast-moving residents of forest edges and meadows. Gradually, the bison line became northern specialists, able to live where other cattle couldn't. They also became open grassland specialists.Less

Buffalo Birds

Dale F. Lott

in American Bison: A Natural History

As their eggs become ready to lay, female buffalo birds scout around for a place to lay them in already feathered nests containing newly laid eggs — always of another species, because buffalo birds ... More

As their eggs become ready to lay, female buffalo birds scout around for a place to lay them in already feathered nests containing newly laid eggs — always of another species, because buffalo birds don't make nests. The bird people call such birds brood parasites. Buffalo bird nestlings need to eat most of their weight every day. The logistics of depending on beater buffalo for food makes rearing a brood a chancy business. So traveling with the herd and being a brood parasite go together nicely. Somewhere else in all that DNA are instructions for finding bison and using them as beaters.Less

Coyotes

Dale F. Lott

in American Bison: A Natural History

The versatile coyote, not paired with the badger to hunt squirrels, would probably search for some other kind of food, perhaps with other companions and collaborators. Opportunists that they are, ... More

The versatile coyote, not paired with the badger to hunt squirrels, would probably search for some other kind of food, perhaps with other companions and collaborators. Opportunists that they are, they sometimes include poultry and lambs in their diet. They are adaptability itself in their social organization as well as their diet. Two local factors seem to determine their size and social life: diet and density. The coyote's social flexibility gives them a tremendous potential to reproduce when times are good. Females breed younger and have bigger litters. For a few years there were so many bison carcasses, their tough hides conveniently removed, that there would have been no real competition for food. The coyote population must have exploded during those times.Less

Bison Numbers before the Great Slaughter

Dale F. Lott

in American Bison: A Natural History

The difficulty of estimating the bison population of primitive America shrinks in comparison to trying to estimate the numbers in North America just after the Civil War — just before the start of the ... More

The difficulty of estimating the bison population of primitive America shrinks in comparison to trying to estimate the numbers in North America just after the Civil War — just before the start of the commercial hide hunt often called “the Great Slaughter.” Many forces — horseback hunting, robe trading, habitat degradation — bore down on bison in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Even the weather turned against them. One may assume with reasonable certainty that the bison population west of the Mississippi River at the close of the Civil War numbered in the millions, probably in the tens of millions.Less

Attitudes

Dale F. Lott

in American Bison: A Natural History

Today, the hide hunt and the hide hunters seem utterly foreign to most of us. The hide hunters have achieved the anomalous status of despised frontiersmen. Public policy toward wilderness and wild ... More

Today, the hide hunt and the hide hunters seem utterly foreign to most of us. The hide hunters have achieved the anomalous status of despised frontiersmen. Public policy toward wilderness and wild things implements attitudes — private values. The value we put on animals feels so natural and right and inevitable that it's a shock when we first learn that others feel differently about an animal's death. There is no more dramatic illustration of such differences and their consequences than the public policy debate in the 1870s about the fate of the bison. At one level it was about consequences: impact on Native Americans, impact on the bison as a natural resource, proposed legislation. But the debate drew on, and illustrated, basic attitudes toward wildlife in general and bison in particular. Then as now, attitudes were mixed.Less

A Great Plains Park

Dale F. Lott

in American Bison: A Natural History

George Catlin, who traveled, wrote about, and painted the plains between 1832 and 1839, proposed a Great Plains Park created by the national government, where herds of elks and buffalo would be ... More

George Catlin, who traveled, wrote about, and painted the plains between 1832 and 1839, proposed a Great Plains Park created by the national government, where herds of elks and buffalo would be protected in perpetuity. Catlin was way ahead of his time. A Great Plains Park must be very large — at least 5,000 square miles — and must include both upland and river bottom habitat. It's too late to preserve such a representation of the Great Plains, but it's not too late to restore one. Canada has shown the way and even pointed to a place. Its story begins in 1956, when the Saskatchewan Natural History Society began to push for a Grasslands National Park. A grassland park in the United States is possible. It hardly needs saying that such a park would give a welcome boost to wild bison conservation.Less

How Many?: The Bison Population in Primitive America

Dale F. Lott

in American Bison: A Natural History

Bison bison became one of the most abundant large land animals of all time. This chapter addresses the question of how abundant it was before the European invasion of North America. There are no ways ... More

Bison bison became one of the most abundant large land animals of all time. This chapter addresses the question of how abundant it was before the European invasion of North America. There are no ways to count historical bison, and therefore no one can supply an answer that would satisfy a modern wildlife manager. About all one can confidently say is that primitive America's bison population was probably less than 30 million — perhaps, on average, 3 to 6 million less.Less

Pronghorn

Dale F. Lott

in American Bison: A Natural History

A pronghorn is picky — and has to be. Small bodies need less food, but they also need better food: more protein, fewer carbohydrates, less lignin. The pronghorns' perspective on forbs makes their ... More

A pronghorn is picky — and has to be. Small bodies need less food, but they also need better food: more protein, fewer carbohydrates, less lignin. The pronghorns' perspective on forbs makes their relationship to a grassland very different from the bison's. For the bison, it's just grass going on forever, but for the pronghorn there are patches of forbs growing among the grasses. Pronghorn territoriality on the National Bison Range seems to have died a demographic death in 1978–79. But in most species in most situations, the abundance and distribution of food are crucial determinants of territoriality.Less

Indian Paths and Buffalo Traces

Karl Raitz and Nancy O’Malley

in Kentucky's Frontier Highway: Historical Landscapes along the Maysville Road

Early paths across central Kentucky were established by buffalo (bison) and other animals as well as by members of prehistoric societies. Humans, present in Kentucky for at least 12,000 years before ... More

Early paths across central Kentucky were established by buffalo (bison) and other animals as well as by members of prehistoric societies. Humans, present in Kentucky for at least 12,000 years before European and African settlers arrived, moved across the landscape following game animals and their trails. An elaborate network of buffalo traces focused at salt springs where the animals licked salt deposits in the soil, suggesting to early explorers and hunters the term “lick” for such sites.Less

Conservation: Then and Now

Dale F. Lott

in American Bison: A Natural History

Andy Hodge was the first superintendent of the National Bison Range, the first refuge created specifically to prevent wild bison from becoming extinct. Conservation then was mostly a matter of making ... More

Andy Hodge was the first superintendent of the National Bison Range, the first refuge created specifically to prevent wild bison from becoming extinct. Conservation then was mostly a matter of making sure the few animals that remained were not lost to poachers. Samuel Walking Coyote wasn't the first man to keep calves and sell bison. As early as 1870 a few men had captured a few calves and let them breed. In those days, private ownership was the bison's best chance for survival. At the National Bison Range, success in the first stage of conserving bison eventually brought the welcome problem of too many bison. More than 90 percent of the bison in North America today are undergoing domestication.Less

Wolves and Bison: Myths and Realities

Dale F. Lott

in American Bison: A Natural History

Where wolves and bison coexist, wolves often closely follow a herd. Sometimes, though, the wolves are just snatching up small mammals that the bison's feet have flushed. Wolves are opportunists, able ... More

Where wolves and bison coexist, wolves often closely follow a herd. Sometimes, though, the wolves are just snatching up small mammals that the bison's feet have flushed. Wolves are opportunists, able to capture and eat meat from mouse to moose. But while wolves will eat any morsel of meat they encounter, they're designed, body and behavior, to kill hoofed animals, even those as large as bison. Wolf family life is about survival and reproduction. In most circumstances, each family stakes out and defends dozens of square miles to hunt in. At the top stands the alpha wolf, tyrant of all, tyrannized by none. For those at the bottom of the hierarchy, it's a dog's life in the worst sense.Less

Prairie Dogs

Dale F. Lott

in American Bison: A Natural History

Prairie dogs were in many ways as central to the prairie economy as bison, but unlike bison they lived not just on the prairie but in it as well. Prairie dogs spent their lives literally under the ... More

Prairie dogs were in many ways as central to the prairie economy as bison, but unlike bison they lived not just on the prairie but in it as well. Prairie dogs spent their lives literally under the feet of bison. A prairie dog town is more dug than built. They create tunnels too small for most predators to enter and so make homes that are more secure and also, being underground, more temperate. The closer the blade is to the roots, the higher the percentage of protein and the lower the percentage of cellulose it contains. Closely cropped grass is a necessity for prairie dogs and a treat for bison. So bison spend a lot of time in prairie dog towns. Meanwhile, prairie dogs depend on bison to get the grass short enough for them to live there.Less

Close Encounters of the Buffalo Kind

Dale F. Lott

in American Bison: A Natural History

We, humans, sometimes want more from animals than just their hides and meat. We want, in a certain sense, companionship. This chapter explores that desire, and the ways it has connected us to bison. ... More

We, humans, sometimes want more from animals than just their hides and meat. We want, in a certain sense, companionship. This chapter explores that desire, and the ways it has connected us to bison. Few animals have much social flexibility. They assign each individual they encounter to one of a small number of categories: members of other species are predators, competitors, or neutral nonentities. Any change in one's behavior, or in the beast's mood, can easily lead to reassignment to a more dangerous status. A relationship with a buffalo is a dangerous liaison. Bison are immune to our charm, sincerity, personal integrity, and peaceful intentions. Expecting reciprocity is part of our romantic illusion about other animals, sometimes wild ones. People don't tame bison to be beasts of burden, they tame them to prove either that they are tamable or that somebody has got the means to do it.Less

Nationalism, Nostalgia, and the Campaign to Save the Bison

in Nature's Ghosts: Confronting Extinction from the Age of Jefferson to the Age of Ecology

In early 1886, William Temple Hornaday, the chief taxidermist at the U.S. National Museum, had bison on the brain. A decade before, the species that had come to symbolize the Great Plains had been ... More

In early 1886, William Temple Hornaday, the chief taxidermist at the U.S. National Museum, had bison on the brain. A decade before, the species that had come to symbolize the Great Plains had been all but obliterated from the southern portion of its once extensive range. Now increasingly frequent predictions about its extinction in the north seemed to be coming to pass. After several months of correspondence about the status of the species, Hornaday reached a grim conclusion: fewer than 300 bison remained throughout the entire United States. He issued a call for a Smithsonian-affiliated zoo that would shelter the breeding stock of endangered species and help educate the public about their plight. In December 1905, the American Bison Society was founded, with Theodore Roosevelt as honorary president, Hornaday as president, and Ernest H. Baynes as secretary. In addition to nationalism and nostalgia, biology may have also played a role in the success of the conservation campaign to save the bison. The success of the bison restoration efforts contrasted greatly with the story of the passenger pigeon.Less