Ranch hands gathered in the cold pre-dawn darkness last week to prepare for a unique event that takes place every year in late October at The Nature Conservancy’s Tallgrass Prairie Preserve — the annual bison roundup.
They sipped hot coffee and dressed in layers — hoodies, Carhartt outerwear, boots, ballcaps and leather gloves — as they prepared for a sunup-to-sundown workday that would see 300-500 American bison corralled, tagged, weighed, vaccinated and given a quick overall health evaluation. They would do the same thing with another 300-500 animals the next day, and the next day, until every one of the preserve’s approximately 2,700 bison were accounted for.
The roundup has taken place each Autumn since the herd was first reintroduced to the 40,000 acre property in 1993, but not without some changes and adaptations along the way.
Unlike in days past when an army of horse-mounted cowboys, motorized vehicles, and even an occasional helicopter helped herd the animals from the four corners of the ranch, today’s roundup is performed with much pre-planning and precision by a relatively small but dedicated force of hired hands and volunteers.
The Examiner-Enterprise was invited to observe the roundup and given behind-the-scenes access to watch the process unfold first-hand.
Coyotes yipped and howled in the distance as the nearly-full moon set in the west and the first faint rays of the sun began to illuminate the eastern horizon. It was time to go to work. Ranch hands finished their coffee, hopped into their flatbed trucks and headed out into the pasture. After circling the grazing animals, the trucks were driven side-by-side, sometimes four or five abreast, and approach the heard from behind. With their heavy breath steaming in the cold morning air and plenty of Oklahoma dust kicked up by their pounding hooves, the bison were stampeded into a holding corral. Once the bison are safely inside, the gate was slammed shut behind them.
Now the real work started.
The roundup takes place early in the morning because the bison are “less spooked” that way, according to Katie Hawk, director of communications for The Nature Conservancy of Oklahoma. She says the horseback roundup was abandoned because, “It just got too dangerous.” Angry bull bison have a tendency to ram objects in their way.
Unlike their more docile cousins — domesticated cattle — bison have to be handled differently, says former longtime Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Director Harvey Payne.
“We’ve changed our ways a lot,” says Payne, who has been part of the process from the beginning, almost two decades ago. “Bison accumulate stress.”
He explained that because of their wild temperament and larger size (mature bulls can tip the scales at more than a ton) the bison are treated with a healthy dose of respect.
Bison, also commonly referred to as “buffalo,” are the largest native animals on the North American continent and adults can stand 6.5 feet at the shoulder. Full-grown animals can jump 6 feet vertically and run at speeds up to 35 mph. (See Vital Statistic).
The heavy steel corral system built especially to contain and move these powerful beasts is described by Payne as a “horizontal skyscraper.” Its purpose is to winnow down the corralled animals into ever smaller and confining spaces through a series of pens and traps. Individual animals are ultimately moved one at a time into a hydraulic mechanism that immobilizes them so they can be weighed, scanned, tagged, and receive needed shots.
Payne explains that each animal in the herd is identified with an ear-tag transponder. When a wand is passed over the animal’s head, the tag’s data is transmitted to a nearby laptop computer. There, the animal’s sex, origin, age, weight, pregnancy status and overall health are brought up on a screen. Males between the ages of 6 and 7 years old tend to become more aggressive and difficult to manage. The are culled from the herd and sold. Females are sold between 10-12 years of age. The goal is to maintain a healthy, productive and genetically diverse herd.
It is all part of a much larger plan for the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, according to Payne.
“What we’re trying to do here in a nutshell is recreate a functioning tallgrass prairie,” says Payne. “It’s shaped by fire, grazing and other ecological forces.”
Comprised of the former Chapman-Barnard Ranch, approximately 18 miles due north of Pawhuska, the sprawling Tallgrass Prairie Preserve consists of more than 40,000 acres of prime grassland and is the largest protected remnant of tallgrass prairie left in the world. Since 1993, The Nature Conservancy has successfully restored a fully-functioning portion of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem with the use of free-roaming bison.
Named in honor of their daughter, Ken-Ada Ranch owners Kenneth and Dianna Adams of Washington County donated the original 300 animals — “The Christina Adams Bison Herd” — to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in the fall of 1993. Since then, the herd has grown to a target size of approximately 2,600-2,700 animals including calves, grazing in a 23,000 acre “fire-bison unit.” The genetically pure herd continues to thrive despite recent drought conditions. (See Bison Herd Growth graphic.)
Payne, who grew up on an Osage County ranch, says that back in the early 1980s, not everyone — including other nearby ranchers and property owners — was warm to the idea of setting aside a large tract of land for a tallgrass preserve. In fact, he says he was also opposed to the idea at first but eventually saw the science and the inherit value of preserving a vanishing ecosystem. After the federal government dropped it owns plans, the privately-funded Oklahoma Chapter of the Nature Conservancy began an ambitious plan to purchase the coveted property.
The native grasses and plants, cyclical burning, and the bison are all vital links in restoring the land to its natural state after more than a century of market-driven cattle ranching practices. With much fanfare and the blessings of Osage tribal elders, The Nature Conservancy reintroduced the bison as a critical part of the restoration of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem.
An attorney by trade and an accomplished wildlife photographer, Payne recently stepped down as the preserves’s director after serving in that capacity since 1990. The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is now led by Bob Hamilton. He has worked at the preserve since it was first acquired in 1989.
Steve Forsythe currently donates time as a docent to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve and is a contract ranch hand for the annual bison roundup. He previously worked for The Nature Conservancy after he retired from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“The roundup is like my rite of passage each year into winter,” says Forsythe. “I get to reconnect to with my friends and co-workers and then I get to see the bison. As a docent, when you see the bison, they are out in the field and on the prairie. But this is up close and fairly personal. It’s pretty different. It’s tiring, it’s hard work, but it’s worth it.”
For more information about The Nature Conservancy in Oklahoma, log onto http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/o...