ROAD TO RECOVERY A B 21st Century Skills Library ROAD TO RECOVERY A B Barbara A. Somervill Cherry Lake Publishing Ann Arbor, Michigan Published in the United States of America by Cherry Lake Publishing Ann Arbor, MI www.cherrylakepublishing.com Content Adviser: Dr. Cormack Gates, Co-Chair (North America) IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) Bison Specialist Group; Coordinator, Environmental Science Program, Faculty of Environmental Design, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada Photo Credits: Page 19, Photo courtesy of Library of Congress; page 22, © Raymond Gehman/Corbis Map by XNR Productions, Inc. Copyright ©2008 by Cherry Lake Publishing All rights reserved. No part of the book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Somervill, Barbara A. American bison / by Barbara A. Somervill. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN-13: 978-1-60279-031-5 (hardcover) ISBN-10: 1-60279-031-0 (hardcover) 1. American bison—Juvenile literature. 2. Endangered species—Juvenile literature. I. Title. QL737.U53S665 2008 599.64'3—dc22 2007003871 Cherry Lake Publishing would like to acknowledge the work of The Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Please visit www.21stcenturyskills.org for more information. T C CHAPTER ONE Roundup! 4 CHAPTER TWO The Story of American Bison 9 CHAPTER THREE Endangered! 15 CHAPTER FOUR The Road to Recovery 21 CHAPTER FIVE American Bison Today 25 Map 29 Glossary 30 For More Information 31 Index 32 About the Author 32 CHAPTER ONE R! It is an early, frosty October morning. Horses snort and stamp, anxious to be on their way. Local ranchers, park employees, and veterinarians are about to start four days of demanding work. The bison roundup will soon be under way at Badlands National Park in South Dakota. A single plains bison grazes in South Dakota’s Badlands National Park. 4 21st CENTURY SKILLS LIBRARY The park is a maze of deep canyons, rugged mountains, and multicolored ribbons of soil. Ridges, mounds, valleys, and curving streambeds carve the stark, beautiful landscape. The park’s mixed-grass prairie is ideal for plains bison. And this is what the roundup is all about—bison. Although this is a natural home for plains bison, they have not lived in this area continuously. Plans were made to reintroduce bison here in the 1960s. In 1963, four animal species arrived at Badlands to “repopulate” the park: black-footed ferrets, bighorn sheep, swift foxes, and American bison. The experiment was a remarkable success. Today, more than 1,000 bison live in the park, and they continue to produce healthy young. However, the park can support only so many bison. Now some need to be captured and relocated. ROAD TO RECOVERY: A B 5 In a narrow canyon, a half dozen bison browse on tufts of grass. Bison thrive on native grasses and sedges. As the cowboys approach on horseback, the bison snort and stamp. They cluster together. Then, as the horses edge Bison eat a variety of prairie grasses. 6 21st CENTURY SKILLS LIBRARY around them, the bison stampede toward the canyon’s entrance. The cowboys herd the bison into pens and through narrow passages, where the veterinarians can examine them closely. Watch it! Those horns are sharp, and the bison don’t particularly enjoy the process. This roundup brings 657 bison in for medical exams and shots for various diseases. The veterinarians also draw blood to determine each animal’s genetic makeup. Today, there are very few 100 percent pure bison. Most bison are a mix of bison and cattle. Maintaining herds of purebred bison is important for keeping the bison species healthy. After the roundup, the park makes arrangements to ship 278 of these animals to six different states and several different Native American tribes. The bison will join herds belonging to the Oglala Sioux and the Santee Sioux, among others. ROAD TO RECOVERY: A B 7 The process of cutting out specific animals from earning & nnovation a herd is called culling, and culling is necessary to I Skills American bison are not buffalo. The word keep herds healthy. A well-managed herd, even one buffalo was apparently first used to describe the that lives wild, needs to have a balance of males North American animal in 1635. People have continued to use it and females and a mix of ages. The 2006 bison incorrectly ever since. American bison have roundup helped to balance the Badlands herd. It also been called buffalo for so long that even provided a mix of healthy beasts to fill other herds the 1913 nickel was nicknamed the “buffalo nickel.” The model for on reservations in the prairie states. the tails side of the nickel was a bison named Black Diamond, a resident of the Bronx Zoo in New York City. Do you think it’s more important to use the true or historical name? Why or why not? 8 21st CENTURY SKILLS LIBRARY CHAPTER TWO T S A B Shaggy, dense, dark coats keep the bison warm in the coldest weather. The thick fur lies like a cape around the head, neck, hump, and front legs. Bison shed their coats for the summer, and a thinner, light brown coat takes its place. The summer coat keeps the animal cool while its twitchy flyswatter of a tail bats away annoying flies and gnats. A bison’s thick, wooly coat serves as a barrier against the elements. ROAD TO RECOVERY: A B 9 G BOVINE"/ VYNE relating to or belonging to the animal family that includes cattle and bison BRUCELLOSISBRUH SUH ,/7 SISS a disease that causes animals to miscarry their young or produce weak or premature young CONSERVATIONISTSKON SUR 6!9 SHUN ISTS people who work to preserve environments, animals, or plants GENETICJIH .%( TIK involving the characteristics passed from parents to their young through genes JUVENILES*// VUH NYLZ the young of a species KERATIN#!2% UH TIN a substance that is the protein base in producing hair, nails, feathers, and hooves KEYSTONESPECIES+%% STONE30%% SHEEZ an animal or plant that many other animals and plants depend on for survival PEMMICAN0%- IH CAN meat that has been dried, pounded to a fine texture, and mixed with fat to preserve it RESERVATIONSREZ UHR 6! SHUNZ areas of land set aside for a particular purpose, such as a home for a Native American tribe SEDGESSEJ IZ grasslike plants SPECIES30%% SHEEZ a group of similar animals or plants TUBERCULOSISTUH BURK YOO ,/ SIS a disease that causes infections in the lungs and complicates breathing VETERINARIANSVET UHR UH .!2 EE UNZ doctors that specialize in caring for animals 30 21st CENTURY SKILLS LIBRARY F M I Books Kite, L. Patricia. Watching Bison in North America. Chicago: Heinemann Library, 2006. Marrin, Albert. Saving the Buffalo. New York: Scholastic, 2006. Patent, Dorothy Hinshaw. The Buffalo and the Indians: A Shared Destiny. New York: Clarion Books, 2006. Picton, Harold. Buffalo: Natural History and Conservation. Stillwater, MN: Voyageur Press, 2005. Waldman, Neil. They Came from the Bronx: How the Buffalo Were Saved from Extinction. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills Press, 2001. Web Sites National Parks Conservation Association—American Bison www.npca.org/wildlife_protection/wildlife_facts/bison.html For information on bison found in national parks NatureWorks—American Bison www.nhptv.org/natureworks/americanbison.htm For photos and information on bison behavior Wind Cave National Park—American Bison www.nps.gov/wica/bison.htm To find facts about the bison at the Wind Cave National Park ROAD TO RECOVERY: A B 31 I American Bison Society, 23, glaciers, 15, 16 Pelican Valley, 23, 26 26–27 pemmican, 17 American Prairie Foundation, 24, height, 10 Plains Indians, 18 28 herds, 8, 12, 13, 17, 18, 23, population, 17–18, 22, 23 28 prairie dogs, 16, 26 Badlands National Park, 4–8 horns, 7, 11, 13 bovine tuberculosis, 24, 27 hump, 13–14 relocation, 5, 7, 23–24, 26–27 Bronx Zoo, 8, 23, 26–27 hunting, 16, 17, 19–20 roundups, 4, 6–7, 8, 27 brucellosis, 24, 27 buffalo, 8 insects, 16 Santee Sioux tribe, 7 buffalo jumps, 17 Intertribal Bison Cooperative, 26, settlers, 18 buffalo nickel, 8, 25 28 shedding, 9 bulls, 12, 13 skins, 17, 19, 20 juveniles, 12 calves, 12, 13–14, 24, 26, 28 weight, 10–11, 13, 14 Campbell, Ben Nighthorse, 25 keratin, 11 Wichita Mountain Preserve, 23 Cape buffalo, 11–12 keystone species, 16 wisents (European bison), 11 cattle, 7 wood bison, 24, 27 Cheyenne tribe, 21 life span, 14 Wood Buffalo National Park, coats, 9, 19 24, 26 conservationists, 23, 25–26 males, 10, 11, 12, 13 World Conservation Union Bison culling, 8 mating, 12, 13 Specialist Group, 26 World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Elk Island, 27 Native Americans, 7, 16–17, 24, 26, 28 European exploration, 17 18, 26, 28 Nature Conservancy, 26 Yellowstone National Park, 10, females, 10, 11, 12, 13 nursing, 13, 14 23, 26 food, 6, 14, 16 Oglala Sioux tribe, 7, 18 zoos, 8, 14, 20, 23, 26–27 genetics, 7 A A "ARBARA!3OMERVILL writes children’s nonfiction books on a variety of topics. She is particularly interested in nature and foreign countries. Somervill believes that researching new and different topics makes writing every book an adventure. When she is not writing, Somervill is an avid reader and plays bridge. 32 21st CENTURY SKILLS LIBRARY 21st Century Skills Library In the early 1800s, millions of bison grazed on the plains of North America. But as the United States expanded westward, the bison were in the way and were slaugh- tered. Read this book to fi nd out how the American bison is making a comeback from near extinction and once again populating the Great Plains.