Bison and wolves

Ranchers bringing cattle back from summer grazing have long noticed changes in their cattle, and not good ones. They are seeing more illness, less pregnancies and even aggressive behavior. The cause is known to be stress from wolf predation. Oregon State's Reinaldo Cooke: “And every time they saw a wolf or heard a wolf howl or smell a wolf, that would trigger a stress reaction on them. It would be chronic stress reaction of course because they would see them maybe once a week, once every couple of days. So that would cause a chronic stress. And then there’s the problem of actual cattle loss. Some ranchers in Idaho have lost inordinate numbers of cows due to wolf kills.

Enter the bison. I asked Jim Matheson, Asst. Director of the National Bison Association if bison were less vulnerable to wolves. “They are. And that goes back to them not being domesticated and able to utilize their instincts, predation is really not an issue with bison. In Montana, on a couple of the larger ranches, I believe we've had a couple of losses to wolves from calves or old cows or what have you. But in the big picture, I mean, we're talking about I'd say probably less than 10 death losses in thanks to the bison herd mentality. You know, they stick together as a group just as they would in the wild natural setting. They will herd up together and defend themselves. Put the calves in the middle of their herd, for example, we see that happen when there's predators around. So, again, those natural instincts really benefit the rancher.