| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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Article 2/05/05 |
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Oh,
give me a home where the buffalo chromosomes roam
If new blood makes a play, isolated herd to survive
on range
By Betsy Blaney, Associated Press, Rocky Mountain News.Com
February 5, 2005 |
CAPROCK
CANYONS STATE PARK, Texas - The rumble from stampeding
bison used to shake the earth, as thousands of the majestic
animals thundered across these parts centuries ago.
That sound has faded almost entirely now, and the fate
of one of the last pure herds in North America - begun
by famed cattleman Charles Goodnight - rests with a trio
of bulls donated by media tycoon and bison rancher Ted
Turner.
The Texas herd, once 250 strong, has dwindled to 53, and
more than a century of inbreeding threatens its survival.
The herd's average age has increased by three years -
bison typically live between 12 to 15 years - and the
number of calves has dropped in recent years. Nine were
born last year.
With Turner's bulls, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
and Texas A&M University's College of Veterinarian
Medicine hope to strengthen the herd and preserve an animal
that symbolizes the American West.
"We don't know exactly what the outcome will be,"
said James Derr, an associate professor of veterinary
pathoboiology at Texas A&M. "We do know the outcome
if we do nothing. This herd will become extinct."
The Texas herd was started in the 1870s with five bison
calves captured by Goodnight, one of the most prosperous
cattlemen in the American West who had more than 1 million
acres of ranchland and 100,000 head of cattle at his peak.
His wife, Mary Ann, urged him to save the bison because
hunters were killing them by the hundreds of thousands
for their hides and meat - and to crush American Indian
tribes who depended on the animals for food and clothing.
The herd was donated to the state in 1997 and was moved
to 330 acres of Caprock Canyons State Park, which was
once part of Goodnight's JA Ranch between Lubbock and
Amarillo.
While doing pregnancy tests on the herd in the fall of
2001, researchers found that 15 of the 18 adult females
were pregnant. However, by spring, when the females were
to give birth, only five calves survived. The rest were
either not born or did not survive long after birth.
Disease and genetic problems, such as chromosomal defects,
were ruled out. As part of another project, Derr and another
researcher were already sampling the DNA from the federal
bison herds throughout the United States.
They knew how much genetic variation there should be in
an average bison, and they found the Texas herd "had
significantly less genetic variation" than any of
the federal herds and most of the state and private herds,
Derr said.
Researchers concluded that the herd suffered from inbreeding
depression. Since the herd was confined on the Goodnight
ranch and then the state park, no new genes had entered
the herd for 120 years.
A computer model showed the herd would probably die out
in 50 years if nothing was done to diversify the gene
pool.
Still, researchers were reluctant to tamper with the herd
too much, Derr said.
Since the herd originated in the Texas Panhandle, it is
probably the last genetic example of what was called the
Southern Plains bison, said Danny Swepston, a state wildlife
district leader who oversees the herd.
When the transcontinental railroad was built across the
United States in the 1800s, the bison - which are believed
to have numbered in the tens of millions - were split
into what was known as the Northern and Southern herds.
The Southern herds were made up of animals from Texas,
eastern New Mexico, eastern Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma
and southern Nebraska.
Derr said the best option was to try and find a herd with
a historical link to the Texas bison and a lot of genetic
variation, but not hybrids of cattle and bison or animals
infected with contagious diseases.
They found their link with Turner's herd in New Mexico.
So, in 2003, wildlife representatives, along with Texas
A&M researchers, traveled across the Texas border
and chose three 11/2-year-old bison bulls.
Turner owns the largest private bison herd in the world,
with about 40,000 head on 13 ranches in seven states.
He is interested in rebuilding the country's bison population,
which currently stands at about 250,000 animals.
He also raises bison to supply meat at his Ted's Montana
Grill restaurant chain.
"We obviously are committed to the conservation of
bison as a keystone species," said Russ Miller, general
manager of Turner Enterprises, which oversees Turner's
herd. "We were glad to be contributing partners to
the effort."
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