Today I had the opportunity to go to Neil Smith National Wildlife Refuge to learn a bit about how they manage and take care of their bison.  It was a great day, and my older sister Brieanna (who is also a bit of a nature enthusiast) got to be my wingman in this ordeal!  This day was also exciting for me because I was able to job shadow a couple of different rangers as they led a group of third graders through prairie learning activities.  I can definitely see myself doing work such as that when I am done with college!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On to the bison!  I met with Karen Vistemen, one of their Animal Ecologists and Managers to talk to her about her experience with the bison at NSNWR.  She had a vast knowledge of caring for the bison and lots of hilarious scenarios that had happened with the bison at Neil Smith.

 

There is a full layout of the complete interview in the next tab, but here are some of the main things I learned about Neil Smith's way of handling bison.  This is just one of the hundreds of possible ways and ethics to use when dealing with these animals, so you should take into consideration what type of management plans you will be using for your own purposes after reading this.

 

Neil Smith National Wildlife Refuge has a low-handling philosophy with their animals.  Their goal is to keep their bison as wild as possible, but since they are enclosed in an area, they are responsible for the bison and must make sure that they are at proper health levels.  One of the main reasons they have for the animals is that the bison will be able to improve the prairie land around them at Neil Smith.  They do occasionally ship bison to Native American Reservations where the Native Americans will use them as they did in their traditional sense, for food and such, but on the Neil Smith lands they use the bison mainly for conservation.  They do, however, realize the fact that meat and especially bison meat to the Native Americans' sense, was key to survival and do not view animals as above humans in value.  I also learned of a couple of incidences where bison had escaped the enclosure and how their workers had to respond to those circumstances.  One of the craziest stories I learned from Karen was of a bison who was struck by lightning and is still living to this day, fully functional.  Karen was very helpful and I learned so much from her.  After our meeting Brieanna and I walked around the visitor/learning center and then drove throught the enclosure to see some real bison. 

 

For a while the only evidence to me of bison even being at Neil Smith was the taxonomic version, some specks on the horizon, and some piles of fresh dung.