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At that point we were not doing wolf bison demonstrations on a regular basis, but Dr. Klinghammer did put in wolves from time to time. He also first tested the bison's reaction to a wolf hide tied around a cylindrical bundle of straw. They hooked it around with their horns and showed some sign of going down on one knee to gore it more thoroughly. Evidently they had some idea of what to do with wolves.
In 1981 we acquired six cows who had been in a field with a bull. Until they calved, we did not know that there had been both a bison bull and a long horn bull in the pasture with the cows. But two of the calves were obviously beefalo. Neither beefalo calf survived. Some bison calves were produced and of course Teton, our bull, bred the cows when they came in season. The herd began to expand.
Our bison are not as socialized to humans as are our wolves. We move them by rewarding them with food treats for following a truck. Most of the bison are fairly tame but over the years some have been aggressive to humans. One such animal was a cow eventually named Nemesis. She was blind in one eye and became aggressive to humans when one of us accidentally startled her by approaching her from her blind side. After that she looked for opportunities to chase humans. Once Dr Klinghammer scrambled up on top of a large hay rack to avoid her. Once she cornered Pat between a gate and the fence. When Nemesis charged, Pat barked. Startled, the cow backed hastily out of the narrow area and ran off.
Teton was much more thoroughly socialized to humans than any of the other bison. He was so gentle that the zoo director felt impelled to warn us solemnly "Always remember, he IS a bull." But he was very easy going; all his life he settled for threats rather than actually charging or goring. There were stories that he had tossed a zoo visitor over the fence, but more out of being startled when the man's nylon windbreaker hooked over one of Teton's horns as the man stretched over the fence to pat the nice bison. Teton had also learned that humans are extremely good at social grooming. He liked to be scratched between his horns and around his ears and he even lay down on his side for tummy rubs!
For years we kept the bison in with just regular farm fencing, supplemented at first with hot wire. In their pasture they have a number of large boulders and Dr. Klinghammer had a couple of very thick posts suck into the ground for the bison to rub on. Because they could meet their grazing and grooming needs without having to push on the fence, they were easy to confine, even though they did scratch on the fence - delicately rubbing their eyelids on the wire from time to time. That is, they were easy to confine until the drought of 1986.
In 1986 it was so dry that the bison grazed their pastures down and began to cast acquisitive looks at our neighbor's soy beans. They went to the fence and leaned over, ogling the potential grazing on the other side. One Saturday morning they pushed and walked down a section of fence and went into the soybeans. The Park's land and some of our neighbors fields undulates gently instead of being table top flat. The soybean field looks deceptively flat, at least once the plants are up a foot or more, but the herd almost disappeared into some dips and folds in the field. We spent the morning coaxing the bison, who were interested in exploring and gadding about, back onto Park pasture and then trying to repair the fence.
By the time the herd was back in its own field, it was five minutes until the Park opened. Of course we counted the bison, but we kept getting different numbers each time and none were accurate. We put this down to stress, our eyeballs coming out on stalks, and the press of getting the gates open and the public let in and entertained. (We were a bit short handed that weekend.)
That evening Mrs. Klinghammer got a call. There was a buffalo across from the golf course. Were we missing one of ours? Mrs. Klinghammer called Pat and volunteers Stuart and Frances. Off we went on a voyage of discovery in the Orange Crush, the Kilimanjaro bright orange VW minibus. By then it was past sunset. Fortunately bison silhouette well in headlights. Fortunately the young bull seemed to have satiated his appetite for exploration and allowed us to haze him gently down the country roads. We had to go a rather round about way (six miles) as there was no direct route to the park from the golf course. A shorter route led through Battle Ground, but that also offered more scope for "Mr. Murphy" (of Murphy's law) to come up with things that could go wrong.
The route we took passed two pastures with cattle, who promptly galloped up to the fence to observe the procession: bison bull, three humans jogging on foot behind, making little rushes when the bull showed signs of turning into lanes, and the mini van at the end of the procession like an orange caboose. One farmer's family woke him up and pushed him out the door in his BVD's under the impression that cattle rustlers were about. When he caught up with us he also expressed disgruntlement at possibility that our bull might get in with his pedigreed cows with resulting beefalo eleven months later. Mrs. Klinghammer promptly offered to sell him the bull, "range delivery."
Our procession continued down the road, now a black topped one, crowned and with drainage ditches on each side rather than nice user friendly "shoulders." We made good progress with only one detour by the bull. He took a sudden turn and visited someone's vegetable garden. There the imperiled zucchini were rescued by the sinister flapping of clothes left to dry on the line, even though it was after sunset. The bull skidded to a stop, regarded the flapping line of white apparitions in amazement, and ran back to the road. All went well until we reached the grain elevator at Ash Grove.
TO BE CONTINUED...
By Pat Goodmann
...Meanwhile we had 5 calves born in the spring of 2002 and then a sixth born on June 30th ! Normally we just have two or three. Last year we just had one. I guess this year is making up for last year. So here are some calf photos that Monty took in April & May.
So far in 2003 the bison are raising four calves. The first one is named "Splash" due to his endeing up in the pond right after birth. His mother gave him a real dunking! The other calf is awaiting a name. Any suggestions? ;-)
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