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Wood Bison Herd to be Culled Because of SizeHerd scheduled to be released into the wild in 2014Related Content
PORTAGE - The North American wood bison was extinct in Alaska for more than 100 years. Now their numbers are thriving at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center (AWCC). So much so, the herd is getting too big and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game says it has to cull ten of the animals. “We're disappointed. I think Fish and Game is disappointed as well. No one wants to see it come to that but the reality is for the overall health of the heard here, there's only so much land and resources we can dedicate to these animals,” said Ethan Tyler from AWCC. The herd is part of the Wood Bison Restoration program that started in 2003. The animals were scheduled to be released into the wild a couple years ago but administrative red tape with the Endangered Species Act prevented that. "These animals should be released. An animal on the endangered species act doesn't need to be behind a fence in Portage. It needs to be back in the wild where it once lived,” said Mike Miller, AWCC Executive Director. To keep numbers down the males are separated from the females and breeding will be restricted to ten calves this year, compared to 35 last spring. The herd will be kept to 135 bison after ten of the oldest bulls are put down. “If we released them into the wild in 2014, it would be like putting a 90-year-old man out there. They'd have a hard time surviving. You'd only be feeding the predators,” said Miller. Fish and Game will euthanize the animals sometime this winter. The meat will be given to charities, while the hides and skulls will be donated to educational organizations. The bison are tentatively scheduled to be released into the wild in 2014. |
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Just a Thought said on Tuesday, Oct 16 at 9:16 PM
Perhaps the majority could be released and some could be retained as breading stock to create a new herd for another area or if the release fails miserably. Continue to process over and over. Create a herd release, create another release, until several have been established healthy and productive. Otherwise way more money will be spent in the future relocating some of the originally released herd. Just a thought.
104134726Susan Nielsen said on Wednesday, Oct 17 at 8:34 AM
Will the Feds cull these animals like they did the horses out on the Islands and the Cattle as well, there is a lot people in Alaska don't know about how many animals they dispose of , we have plenty of land, turn them loose now, they managed to survive quite nicely until humans stepped in and killed them off, and the herd needs Old bulls, they arn't as stupid as you think.
104167551Susan Nielsen said on Wednesday, Oct 17 at 8:39 AM
OH and have you ever eaten old buffalo bull meat well I have and unless you make it into sausage or hamburger it is pretty rank. Ya know there are a lot of Native Americans up here in Alaska that see what your doing as something close to sacrilege, we come originally from where Wood Buffalo were, in the east, don't shame yourselves
104167975J. Painter said on Wednesday, Oct 17 at 2:07 PM
If These Woods Bison were not on The Endangered Species List in the U.S. many bison ranchers in North America would take these bison into their herds and the Woods bison numbers would grow much more rapidly. You can thank the Conservationist Organizations for preventing this from happening and keeping these animals bottled up for years.
104195376J. Painter said on Wednesday, Oct 17 at 2:36 PM
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service needs to get real. There is no justification for keeping these Woods bison on the endangered or threatened list. Again many bison ranchers in the U.S. would like to have Woods bison herds.
104197195Christine Stepien said on Friday, Oct 19 at 1:31 AM
Please just leave them alone. STOP CULLING WHAT EVER YOU FEEL LIKE. They were here long long before you, and belong more than you do. Get a life..
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