My Extended Experience

We were instructed to arrive between 12:30 and 1 PM to ensure visitor safety. They try to do the bison roundup in the mornings, but due to scheduling with the Veterinarian, they could only do it in the afternoon this year. When we first arrived, we all gathered by the pen that the bison would be brought through and given their vaccinations by the Vet. Daniel Price, the natural resource manager at the Fort Worth Center and Refuge, gave us a rundown of everything we should expect from this process, including how it will go down and the various roles we might have. He also talked extensively about the bison they have here. They have twenty-two bison, eight of which are bulls (males). From here, he showed us around the pen and the various gates needed for this to run smoothly. He did give us plenty of warnings about any possible things that could go wrong, such as bleeding bison or one charging him, but Daniel would be the only one directly in harm’s way as it was his job to herd the bison from one area into the pen. There was not a single cloud in the sky on this fall day. After a cold morning, the temperature had arrived in the high 60s by mid-afternoon.

Daniel would herd a group of bison through the front gate into the large opening at the pen’s center. From here, we needed to funnel each bison from the center opening using smaller gates. They would enter this funnel on the right side of the pen, and using smaller gates, we would attempt to separate them. Daniel would be on the inside of the pen and would secure each of the gates with a chain. When the Vet was ready for the next bison, the next set of gates would open, and bison would be funneled in a circle until they reached the tub. Along the side of the tub, the Vet would be able to open different slots and panels to administer the vaccinations for the bison or tend to any wound they might have endured. Daniel would be the only one consistently in harm’s way and required the rest of us to be vigilant for any bison coming up behind him.

This photo is a direct POV from where I was standing as I operated the gate. The red gate in front of me was the one that I was responsible for working. I would swing it towards the other side of the fence, and Daniel would have to catch it and apply a chain to secure it.

I operated one of the gates at the front of the pen. To get to this gate, we had to climb over a fence to the outside of the pen. There were four of us tasked with this job, as there were two gates to operate from this side. There stood two wooden step stools that we could use to peer over the fence to get a better view of the roundup. We had to swing the gate inwards for Daniel to catch from the inside and trap using a chain around one of the fence posts to operate it. These gates were used to trap the individual bison to separate them as they went through the remainder of the pen. Daniel warned us that this gate is one that the bison tended to ram their heads into, and the gate could fling open because a single chain only secures it, and if one of our hands or arms were caught on the other side, it would break. When he told us this, I was a little hesitant because it was my first time doing anything remotely like this, and I had no prior experience working with animals like bison, so I did not know how they would react being inside the pen. Or the middle of all the commotion, I would not be fast enough to move out of the way. The Vet also arrived an hour late due to an emergency surgery in the morning, so I was getting antsy with anticipation to start the roundup. Preston, one of the other volunteers, came over with a baby scorpion he had found from turning over one of the logs. This helped lighten the mood, and we talked to him about his volunteer work at the nature center as he worked here last summer as a counselor and chose to come volunteer whenever he could.

            When it began, I waited in eagerness; I did not know how docile or active the bison would be. Another employee at the nature center said that the only other time they did the roundup was in the afternoon, it was the worst experience they had endured out of the countless roundups they’ve done, so it was nerve-wracking to hear this. The first group ran in; it was two younger bison and Maverick. Maverick is an eight-or nine-year-old bison soon leaving the nature center; they’re hoping a bidder will come and buy him. Maverick was slow to move, but he was reactive. He gored one of the other bison with his horns right in that bison’s neck. That bison’s neck started gushing blood as it dripped between gates waiting to enter the tub. The Vet had to stitch up this bison because Maverick’s horn had struck its jugular. If left unintended the bison would likely bleed out. 

I enjoy this photo because you can make out a lot of the features of the bison’s face. You can see the grooves on its crescent-shaped horn. Its eye is almost glassy and popping out. This bison was among the first group of bison that came through. 

    Daniel slowly and meticulously brought in small groups of bison at a time. For the most part, there were not any issues. Even with the gates open, some hesitated to pass through the funnel while others tried ramming through some gates. The gates held up, even though on the gate I was tending, a bison distorted the gate, so it was crooked on the hinge after continuously ramming its head at the bottom. Luckily that was the last bison, so we did not have to worry about using that gate anymore. We also had to use a shocking device to get a bison to move forward as it was reluctant to take any more steps even though it was facing the right direction.

This photo shows how we used the gates to separate the bison. You can see Daniel standing in the center with his cowboy hat on. It also provides a glimpse of the different gates that each bison has to travel through.

    The older bison were a lot bigger than the calves. The bison had large heads, thick horns, and a coat of brown fur. The top of their tongues was black, while the bottom was a pinkish color. Some of them had pronounced shoulder humps. The older bison was about my height and had short, thin tails, and at the bottom, they had a clump of hair that looked like pom poms. The bison also had short but sharp horns, mostly made of keratin. Some had horns that curved like a crescent, but most were short and pointed straight out. The calves were a different shade of brown. They had the appearance of a reddish brown the younger they were. They were shorter than the older bison and seemed to follow their mothers around.     

This is the tub where the vet does his work. There are slates along the sides that allow the Vet to open individual ones to tend to the bison’s injuries or to administer its vaccines.

We finished around 4 PM. The Vet cleaned up and packed away his gear while the rest of us went into the shade to debrief about the roundup. Daniel asked us if we thought anything needed to be fixed or what went right so they could replicate it for the next time. For the most part, the day went smoothly. One thing mentioned was improving communication down the line and talking about how the bison reacted differently due to the time of the day and how it differs from when they usually do the roundup in the morning. The debrief was short, and we thanked Daniel and the rest of the employees for having us out, allowing us to participate in such an extraordinary process, and trusting us to handle their animals with care.

It was an incredible opportunity. I’m from a suburban town in New Jersey and have recently moved to an island in South Carolina; there is no experience quite like this. I have only ridden a pony once as a child, but that was in a controlled environment. So, dealing with large mammals like bison was out of my comfort zone. I did learn a lot about the nature and resilience of bison. Bison are extraordinarily tough animals and usually seem docile, but when they are agitated, they will ram their heads into the gates. The gates would hold up, and the bison would seem unfazed by the fact they just did that when if humans or other animals attempted that, they would get injured. There are several other behavioral things that I observed. Daniel pointed out that their tails would stick straight up and warn others that it was rearing up to attack. These animals are unpredictable; some of the bison would gore other bison with their horns when threatened, even though it was not the other bison that were a threat to them. They also have a deep attachment to their calves. Whenever a mother and her baby would run into the pen together, getting them to separate using the gates was hard. They would run side by side with one another. When we finally were able to separate them, the young calf would bellow out for its mother, and at one point, a mother had a stare-down with Daniel after he trapped her calf between gates. It was interesting to see a few of the bison get struck by another bison’s horns, and that bison barely would react. They did not fight back or scream in agony. They tried to run away but did not respond as other animals might when attacked.  

I have already told all my friends about this experience. Being outdoors in nature is one thing but being able to interact with another component of nature (animals) is an entirely different experience and one that I would recommend to anyone. Although these animals can live independently, they rely on us to care for them. Their lives spent at the nature center are relatively stress-free. They don’t have to worry about predators coming to attack them or take their food. They don’t have to worry about when their next food comes because we provide it. Meanwhile, our lives spent outside of nature are abundant in stress. I cannot tell you one day when I did not have to do something I did not want to do but had to do. But during this roundup, all those thoughts of my next test, next assignment, work that must be done, events I need to attend, etc., seemed to fade away. My responsibility was to get these animals through the pen and to the Vet. There was something surreal about seeing creatures hundreds if not thousands of pounds more than me and the same height as me standing just a few feet away, only guarded by a fence.