Full Bison Interview with Karen Visteman

 

About five minutes into the interview Karen got an important call that took about two minutes, so in that time I was able to remember that I had brought my phone and would be able to record the interview more relaxed than having to scribble all the notes and talk at the same time, so the first part of the interview is missing, but we mainly talked about the bison round-up that Neil Smith had just had.  They do it once a year and they round up all of the bison to check on their health, weight, and testing their blood for diseases and things like that.  This is the interview typed out.

 

10/29/14

 

How often do you do the roundup?

We do the roundup once a year.

 

I understand that the bison are free-ranging in areas where vehicles can also go in?

Yes.

 

So, have you ever had a problem where a bison interfered with a vehicle or where the vehicle cause alarm to the bison or vice versa?

There was one time, we had an older calf, it was in the spring, in March, so it was not quite a year old that was injured from some kind of trauma that we think was a car, but we don’t know for sure.  And actually, I think that same year there was a bigger animal that was killed right by the road-but we don’t know if it was just fighting, if there was an aggressive bull out there, then it was kind of weird because no one reported it, and you would think if a car hit, that it would cause damage to the car, too.  But our law enforcement guy did go out there at night, and found that there was somebody driving their car real crazy, I mean just really fast through the bison enclosure for a while, I mean repeatedly.

 

Because the speed limit in that area is a lot less than-

Well, it’s a county road, so we can’t really regulate the speed, but it’s just whatever, I don’t know what county speed limits are, but they will drive fast sometimes.  So, you know, there might’ve been that. The only other thing- there was one year that there was a bull that was chasing vehicles, and he- well the only two reports I heard was, one was our law enforcement guy and the other one was a researcher that was driving through the bison enclosure.  So we didn’t hear anything from the public so maybe it was, I don’t know- there was something about them following white vehicles with government plates, so I mean, yeah- you could tell that.

 

What type of fencing do you use around the bison and elk enclosures?

It’s a metal mesh square, and it’s got really heavy gage- we have really big fence posts that are 12 feet tall but they go into the ground about 4 feet so it’s really stable, so it’s eight feet above ground. 

 

Is the roundup for you guys to do checkups on the herd?

Yes.

 

How often do you go in and do checkups for diseases and parasites and things like that?

Well, we do the roundup- the roundup, we take blood samples, we take DNA samples of all the calves, and then we microchip them so then we know who they are in the future and with genetics.  We do blood samples, and then if there’s somebody that doesn’t look very good we’ll look it over more closely.  There was one this year that was just not right.  But generally we’re just looking at herd health, so we don’t treat the individuals.  At roundup times sometimes if they have pink eye, we’ll treat that if it’s active pink eye.

 

So do you have a specific veterinarian that specifies in large ungulates?

We actually, we have a fish and wildlife service person that comes- she’s actually not a veterinarian (there used to be a fish and wildlife veterinarian that came) but she’s just got a lot more experience than anything, so she does that.  But when we transport animals they have to have a veterinarian certification that they’re healthy.  So we have a local vet that comes out for that and he usually does livestock.

 

What purposes are you transporting the animals for?

That is for population control because we have calves born every year because then we’ll have one or two bulls that’ll get killed.  It’s only 800 acres out there, and they’re fenced in, too.  So to keep the population stable we have to remove some animals- we usually ship them to Native American Tribes that have bison and they raise them as part of their culture, for clothing and food.

 

So the bison are able to withstand any temperature, without paddocks?  And you don’t use any enclosed shelters or anything?

No, just natural shelters, you know hills and valleys and trees.

 

Do you maintain and make sure there is enough water for them year-round?

That’s one issue that we’ve never had until a couple years ago we had a big drought, and there’s a creek that runs through the bison enclosure and they’ve always been able to get water from that, but a couple of years ago it actually dried up.  So we had to start giving them water in tanks- we had to take a fire-truck that drew a trailer with water on it, and we were hauling water every day.

 

So you didn’t set up a pump system or anything like that?

Yeah well now, since that happened, we’ve put a pipeline in so we can turn on water down there and have a tank we can use.  But since we’ve got that put in we haven’t had to use it!

 

Are they all organic - that they just feed on the prairie grasses and mulchings and things like that- do you feed them any other nutrients?

We do mineral blocks, and part of that goes back to your vehicle question.  One of the reasons that we give them minerals is because if we don’t, they’ll lick – apparently, I’ve never seen this happen- but they will follow cars and try to lick them because they get salt on them from the roads, in the winter.  But we don’t really know if- there’s been some studies that say that bison really don’t need to have salt supplement, but since they’re confined to such a small area we don’t know if there’re enough minerals there for them.

 

With observing them, you said earlier that if you were a ways in front of them, they wouldn’t go forward just because you were there.  Are there any other things that set off the bison into alarm or anything like that?

It’s mostly just the whole stress situation-like if they get chased too much.  They will jump to the- they go through these tents (tunnels?) that are ten feet tall.  So we stand on the catwalk so we can bend down and see them and open gates and stuff.  There was a bison bull jumping and getting his head up over the top of ten foot tall wall, so they can jump pretty high.  And he was just stressed.  And we couldn’t do anything, and he was getting tired, so we just had to stand there and wait until he finished jumping.

 

Are the bison and the elk together in the area- do they ever have any conflict as different species or are they peaceful?

They pretty much ignore each other.

 

Do the bison do anything else with any other animals or are they just kind of doing their own thing?

They just do their own thing.

 

How much do they contribute to the prairie with- I’ve heard that there is a controversy over whether bison actually bring up the ground and stir it up and seeds can be planted or whether they don’t do that, it’s not important enough, but what do you think of that?

Well they definitely do.  They wallow, so they transport seed in their hair- we’ve actually got a researcher looking at that, who’s been looking at bison hair samples and what kinds of seeds are in it, and then looking at places where they wallow and what kind of plants are growing.  He’s finished with his field work, but he hasn’t finished his research and paperwork.  So they do transport seed in their hair, which is something that cattle don’t do, I mean obviously you know how they also transport seeds through their digestive system and feces, which cattle would do too.  Bison are a lot more selective in their diet- they really prefer grasses, which cattle do too, but cattle will also eat more of the legumes, clovers and things, and the bison just don’t. And so we have- it’s actually some of the invasive species we have, because the bison just avoid them- so you have these clovers and things that are just growing and blooming and dropping seed and the bison aren’t doing anything to help us- so we go out there and mow some of those things like sweet clover.  And then the bison will graze in that area after it’s been mowed, if there’s  grass there, cause they really like that.

 

Has a bison ever gotten out of the enclosure, and what have you had to do?

There was one a long time ago that figured out how to get across the cattle guard.  And the reason we know he figure out is because somebody saw it down the road just outside of the bison enclosure. And so we got trucks and everything and tried to chase him back in.  And right next to the cattle guard on the road there’s a gate, so the staff went out there and opened the gate so they could chase him back in and he didn’t go through the gate, he went right over the cattle guard, and so then he got out again and you know, we knew he was just going to get out, and you can’t really have bison running around Prairie City, IA, and so we had to shoot him- after we found him, which took us like two days.

 

Do you know how he managed to get across the cattle guard?

I don’t know, I guess he just figured it out- I mean, it’s physically possible, they just have to have really good balance to get their feet in the right place.

 

Have you noticed any specific pathogens or viruses or diseases that are common in the herd you have here?

Well, we don’t know of any disease- we do testing, that’s what the blood tests are for, for disease, and as far as I know we haven’t found anything.  We’ve had parasites and so we do actually- so we do fecal samples, and collect fecal samples several times a year.  And we do send those in for analysis.  So they do have parasites right now, because the parasites are native species too, so it’s not like we get rid of all the parasites, we just want to control it so it doesn’t get to a level where it’s going to affect the bison’s health.  So right now we haven’t been treating them for the last couple of years but we have previously used medicated de-wormer blocks when they get really high parasite levels and it starts affecting their health.

 

Have you had downer/non-ambulatory animals and have you just had to shoot them?

Yeah, that’s usually what we do- we try to watch them and see if they can walk and if they can eat then we leave them alone and we just keep checking on them, but once they get to the point where they can’t get up and they can’t eat, you know, or if there’s some other indication that they’re really suffering, we, you know. . . So we actually had one last week where we had to do that.

 

Was that during roundup?

It was after the roundup- he was actually injured before the roundup and had a really bad infection.  And we had been watching him and he had been getting up- it was hard for him, he’d get up and he’d eat, so we thought “I guess he’s going to be okay,” but then he couldn’t get up and he couldn’t eat. . .

 

How big is the herd?

Right now we have 54 total.

 

Do you have specific blood lines or are they just any bison?

Well, we have genetic testing that’s been done on them- these all came from the bison range- the National Bison Range in Montana, so we know that they have some of the rare alleles that aren’t found in other herds, which is why we ended up getting them, so that they’d be in more than one location in case something happened to the National Bison Range, so we kind of spread those around.  And then we just had a couple brought in last year.  They came from Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Colorado, but they actually are originally descended from the bison range.  But we’re going to be doing more of the mixing of animals and herd to Fish and Wildlife Services anyway, to try to get more genetic diversity.

 

Does that help with health, to have more genetic diversity?

Well, we don’t really know, what any of the genes do, it’s just mostly to help conserve the species so that they have as much genetic diversity that can survive.

 

And so since you have low handling processes with the bison, is there a breeding process or is that just on their own, too?

It’s nature, yeah.  They have to fight it out, whoever wins.  And we did have a bison last year in the summer that got hit by lightning, and he’s still alive.  So, he’s just one of those freak of nature-“

 

“So can you tell him apart, like is his hair frayed in all ends?”

“Actually, it’s pretty obvious, he’s got a big scar across his hump, and you know, so that was one that we were keeping an eye on, like “Is he gonna’ make it?”  “Well, he just keeps hanging out. . .”  “Well, he might not make it through the winter.”  And he made it through the winter and then he made it through the summer, and this summer he was with a family group during the breeding so he may have passed on his genes and we’re going, “He’s a tough one, he’s a survivor.” But lately he did get hurt, and he’s been limping.  And you know sometimes we have these bison that limp for a while and then they get better so I need to check on him this week, and see how he’s doing.

 

How long does it take after the calves are born for them to become independent of their mothers?  I know sometimes it varies, but how have you seen that here?

Ah, you’re asking all kinds of good questions- I got stories for this one too.  I mean, generally they’ll stay with their mother for at least a year or more, if they can, but it’s a question of how much they need to, and you know some of it’s just social.  And we had a calf that was orphaned when he was two months old, and he survived.  I mean normally that’s really too young to be weaned, but he made it, so.

 

Why did he become an orphan?

His mother was, I think it all happened when she gave birth, she was injured somehow, she couldn’t walk very well after that.  And you know it was one of those that we’re keeping an eye on her and we thought maybe she would be okay, but no she was having trouble walking but she didn’t make it and then yeah, I was really worried about that calf, because she had separated from the family group because she couldn’t keep up with them, and was just kind of hanging out in the little area, and so here was this calf who didn’t really have any social experience, because he had just hung out with his mother, and so once in a while the herd would come through, so I didn’t know how he would do, but a couple of days later he joined the herd.  And he hooked up with a yearling female who just kind of took him in and he followed her everywhere.  It was sweet.  But generally they could be weaned at a few months old, six months maybe, but they usually stick with mom until she has her next calf, and so sometimes she won’t have a calf the next year.  And I have seen yearlings nursing in the summer- so they’re a full year old, and they will, yeah, and I’m like ‘C’mon, you’re too big for that.’ 

 

Do you know what specific grasses or plants that your bison graze on or prefer to graze on?

Well we’ve had a study done but it was basically whatever grass was most common.  Like I said, they prefer the grasses, and they’ll eat almost any kind of grass.  And it depends on the season, so during the summer it’s the bluestem and Indian grasses, and in the spring they eat more of the (brown?) which isn’t native, but that’s what’s green at that time of year.

 

 

Well, those were all of my questions-

Well, there were some that I think I had more to say on, I’m trying to think. . .oh, with the escaping bison- besides the one, there was another time some, there were like six or seven young bulls together and they got out, and I think somebody reported them on the savannah trail, so we had to go out there with vehicles and chase them in.  We figured out how they had gotten in- there’s water gaps, so where the creek goes under the fence we have a little piece of fencing that hangs down, but when there’s a flood, you know or a lot of rain all at once it will kind of turn up and it will sometimes get stuck up there, and so we think that’s what happened.  But by the time we got them in, it was down again, so it was just one of those things.  And then another time the whole family group apparently, it was during the winter, and the cattle guards filled up with snow and ice and they just walked across the cattle guard.  And we didn’t know it till the next day- it was one of the neighbors that said, hey your bison were out last night, and it’s like ‘oh- they didn’t tell us till four or five o’clock in the afternoon.’ And he had just driven up to them and they all went right back in- I think they figured out ‘hey, there’s nothing out here, to eat, so we’ll go back in there.’  Because they didn’t go back out the next day.

 

So in the winter do they still graze or do you supplement anything?

No, we don’t feed them, so they kind of have to find it- they can push the snow away and get the grass underneath.

 

Because I know they naturally eat less in the winter.

Yeah, and they lose weight, and usually around February we have people telling us “Those bison are looking really skinny!”  Yeah. That’s what they do.   It’s nature.  They lose weight.  But hopefully they don’t get to the point that, I mean that one year that they were fighting so much in the spring we think that was a really bad winter so we think there wasn’t enough food in the winter and that’s why they were fighting more.  So we just try to keep it as , you know, treat them as wild animals as much as we can, but you know, since they’re confined to 800 acres that’s really not enough space for them to really be wild, and there’s no predators, so. . .

 

Is there a code of ethics that all of the employees have to sign that deal with the bison or anything like that?

Nothing really formal like that, but we just have a-when people are working in there or have to do anything in the enclosure we usually have the person stay close to a vehicle and have another person around to look at the bison, and you know, it’s really- during the roundup you can see how wild they really are, and they’re not like cattle.  You know when you’re handling them, because I’ve been around cattle, and they’re kind of just mulling through, but when you see something jumping ten feet in the air.  But most of the time they’re pretty calm out there, so if you’re not chasing them and it’s not the breeding season then it’s not an issue.  But one thing that’s different here than like Yellowstone or places where there’s a lot of people around the bison is that the grass gets so tall, and I’ve been out there doing plant surveys, and you know I had some interns out there with me, and we looked up and all of the sudden there was a hump coming towards us, and I mean we couldn’t even see the bison- all we could see was the very top of his hump as he was walking towards us- and he- I don’t know if he knew that we were there, he just happened to be walking that direction, so we had to go back to our vehicle really fast.  And he kept- it’s like “don’t run, don’t run, just walk fast- and he kept following us, then he stopped and looked at the truck, so I don’t know what – if he was just curious or what.  So it’s just really hard to see them, so you could be close to one without knowing it. You know sometimes I go out there- I try to get out there once every week or two and just check on them and just see how they’re doing, but you know in the summer, I can’t find them.  You know I count them and I know how many we’re supposed to have, I’m thinking there’s twelve missing, I don’t know- our bulls are out there somewhere, you know they could just lie down and you wouldn’t see them.  So we don’t really know until the roundup how many have survived, then we can get them in and get a good count of them. 

 

So do you use trucks and horses for your roundup?

We just use trucks, they used to use horses for their roundup, but it’s just too dangerous, for the people and the horses.  And you can do it all in vehicles, and it’s just- we don’t ‘chase’ them- we kind of push them, so we just drive really slowly so we can keep them at a walk, sometimes they’ll run, but we don’t want to get them all stressed out before everything happens.  It’s really not as exciting as people think, but it’s still, the whole handling process is pretty exciting. 

 

Well thank you, those were all of the questions that I had.

And well, a big part of what we’re trying to do with the bison, I think you mentioned, is restoring the prairie as part of the ecosystem, so that’s why the number of bison we have out there is really important, because if you have too many they’ll eat too much.  And you know the last couple of years when it was so dry, you know it was kind of pushing it with how many bison we had.

 

Oh- do you ever have any prescribed burns around where the bison are?

Oh yeah.

 

How do you manage that- I mean, do they run away from it or-

They just pretty much ignore us.  And we’ve had problems sometimes where the bison didn’t want to leave where we were doing the prescribed burn, and so we actually, it doesn’t burn as hot in there, because they graze it so the vegetation isn’t as tall, so I mean there’s been times where we just burn and there’s a few bulls hanging out in the area where we’re burning and they just stood there.  I mean eventually they’ll kind of walk through the flames if they have to- it’s not high flames or anything it’s just kind of creeping along.  But yeah we burn- that’s part of what our management is- patch burn grazing, so we try to burn a part of that, or a few parts of it every year, so it rotates them around so they graze different areas.

 

Because I’ve heard of rotational grazing where they used wheeled fences and they moved the bison around that way so that the parts of their pasture don’t get too eaten up in one spot, so they vary it around.

Yeah, we just let them go wherever they want, we try to encourage them by burning to move around, but you know it’s there’s certain places they just like better, so they spend more time there even if it did get burned.

 

Okay, well, thank you very much.