Posted on 09/12/2017 7:23:35 AM PDT by DFG
The National Park Service plans to thin a herd of bison in the Grand Canyon through roundups and by seeking volunteers who are physically fit and proficient with a gun to kill the animals that increasingly are damaging park resources.
Some bison would be shipped out of the area and others legally hunted on the adjacent forest. Within the Grand Canyon, shooters would be selected through a lottery to help bring the number of bison roaming the far northern reaches of the park to no more than 200 within three to five years.
About 600 of the animals now live in the region, and biologists say the bison numbers could hit 1,500 within 10 years if left uncontrolled.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
I’m with you.
Please explain, then, how bison and longhorn cattle coexist at the Wichita Mts. Wildlife Refuge. And, without disease transmission to cattle on adjoining private land.
What else do you need Spoon-fed to you this morning?
Your pablum?
FReepMail for you...
I get it. Your statements have no basis in fact and so you initiate a personal attack. Get lost.
True, I’m very familiar with the area and management. A fine, textbook example of herd management that could be duplicated elsewhere.
I recall some fencing yrs. ago that wasn’t nine feet high, might have to go walk the fenceline soon and check....
Why not move them? Because they are crazier than a bed tick and just as unmanageable. Which is why we have beef and not bison herds.
I’ll sign up for the lottery but I’d like to know if the shooters get to keep the hides?
Use to hike and camp there when I was stationed at Sheppard AFB. 50 miles South of Lawton. Lots of nature and wildlife photos stored in some box in the basement!
I’ll take one thank you.
Small world, do you remember a Chevy dealer (Mathis Chevrolet) near hwy 44? I bought 1969 Chevelle Malibu from them, 13 Nov 1969. I still own it & will be showing it in a local classic car show this Saturday.
They were a large business back then in Burk. I was a Junior in HS and they were a large supporter of the football team. There is still a dealership on that spot still.
You’re a bitter, lazy horse’s ass and you want others to do your work.
Explain.
I'm sorry but you are somewhat incorrect.
Plains indians believed that their Great Spirit would provide fresh buffalo every year, and multiple times a year. If you read some of the journals of the early explorers, they wrote about their disgust at finding 'virgin' plains littered with the rotting bodies of buffalo; the stench was described as unbearable and carried on the breeze for miles.
The Indians that relied on buffalo migrations lived a lifestyle of feast and famine. But they didn't hunt the deer, antelope and elk, who they viewed as not 'real food,' with the same enthusiasm as buffalo. The average take by a hunter might be 3 or 4 animals, but some were known to kill over 100 each, far more than any one tribal group (usually 30-70 people) could process before moving on. The 'good parts' were harvested by the indian slaves/squaws and the rest of the carcass left for the scavengers, many with full hides on since hides had little trade value until around 1835 - everyone had them. And besides, the Great Spirit would just send more.
Fire was used as a means to herd, with little care for the 'inferior meat' of other prairie animals. On the prairie, wounded animals were not followed and put out of their misery. When box-canyon type 'pounds' were built to hold herded buffalo, every buffalo in the catch was slaughtered regardless of need, by men above and around the pen using arrows and spears - a messy business since clear lung kill shots were hard to accomplish in a pen of milling, panicked, bleeding animals with calves at their side. Buffalo were also driven off cliffs, calves and all. Indians chasing buffalo off a cliff And yes, indians did kill buffalo for sport - killing a buffalo was a mark of transition from boy to man, and in some groups that buffalo was skinned but not eaten, except for the tongue. White buffalos were sought out and were also killed and not eaten; their 'magical' hide being the prize, the body left to rot, the meat forbidden.
It was this lackadaisical attitude towards buffalo that was adopted up by the other indigenous Americans - first, the longguns- who, prior to the plains wars, hunted the buffalo that roamed east of the Mississippi for food - for the Revolutionary Army and northern colonies. And, unlike the Indians who preferred the cows for their fat content, longgun hunters killed bulls and left the cows and young calves alone. Post-Civil War, the Union soldiers hunted buffalo to supply forts (some of which protected Indians from other hostile Indians). The buffalo were also shot wholesale by railroad men intent on protecting their trains and passengers and company towns from massive stampedes (see below) and with the tactic permission of a Federal government who believed that until indians were transformed into an agrigarian culture to match that of the incoming settlers, there would never be peace.
Finally, buffalo were killed to trade with the settlers, eventually replacing the demand for small animal pelts. Between 1835 and 1871, most hides on the market were tanned by slaves/squaws and sold to fur traders for around $2.50 each, with each squaw able to produce between 15-30 tanned pelts a season. (The average farm wage in 1871 was about 50-75cents a week). Many more animals were killed than pelts sold because not all pelts were good enough to be tanned. Over half a million pelts were traded in 1875 from a herd that was estimated to number 40million. The commercialization of hides caused a break between indian groups who believed the buffalo shouldn't be hunted just for its pelt, and those who disagreed. From 1875 to 1890 the Federally promoted slaughter brought that herd down to about 500 animals.
The unrevised history of America can shed some clarity: on how dangerous buffalo were:
"A buffalo stampede is much worse -- or rather was much worse, in the old days -- because of the great weight and immense numbers of the beasts, which, in a fury of heedless terror, plunged over cliffs and into rivers, and bore down whatever was in their path. On the occasion in question, my brother and cousin were on their way homeward.
They were just mounting one of the long, low swells, into which the prairie was broken, when they heard a low, muttering, rumbling noise, like far-off thunder. It grew steadily louder, and, not knowing what it meant, they hurried forward to the top of the rise. As they reached it, they stopped short in terror and amazement, for before them the whole prairie was black with madly rushing buffaloes. Afterward they learned that another couple of hunters, four or five miles off, had fired into and stampeded a large herd. This herd, in its rush, gathered others, all thundering along together in uncontrollable and increasing panic.
The surprised hunters were far away from any broken ground or other place of refuge, while the vast herd of huge, plunging, maddened beasts was charging straight down on them not a quarter of a mile distant. Down they came! -- thousands upon thousands, their front extending a mile in breadth, while the earth shook beneath their thunderous gallop, and, as they came closer, their shaggy frontlets loomed dimly through the columns of dust thrown up from the dry soil. The two hunters knew that their only hope for life was to split the herd, which, though it had so broad a front, was not very deep. If they failed they would inevitably be trampled to death.
Waiting until the beasts were in close range, they opened a rapid fire from their heavy breech-loading rifles, yelling at the top of their voices. For a moment the result seemed doubtful. The line thundered steadily down on them; then it swayed violently, as two or three of the brutes immediately in front fell beneath the bullets, while their neighbors made violent efforts to press off sideways. Then a narrow wedge-shaped rift appeared in the line, and widened as it came closer, and the buffaloes, shrinking from their foes in front, strove desperately to edge away from the dangerous neighborhood; the shouts and shots were redoubled; the hunters were almost choked by the cloud of dust, through which they could see the stream of dark huge bodies passing within rifle-length on either side; and in a moment the peril was over, and the two men were left alone on the plain, unharmed, though with their nerves terribly shaken. The herd careered on toward the horizon, save five individuals which had been killed or disabled by the shots.
imagine what such a herd would do to a railcar or a town or a prairie sodhouse.
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