Where the Buffalo Roam

One of my favorite things about living in Montana has been Aaron's job at the National Bison Range. It's doubled the length of his resume and given Noah and I free access to a zoo of sorts. I can only think of one time I've gone there and not seen a deer, elk, bison, rattlesnake, or something else interesting.

Every year on the Bison Range, they round up all the bison and check them one by one for health, weight, disease, pregnancy, genetics, etc. Despite all the craziness with his job, Aaron got to help with this year's roundup, and Noah and I got to watch.

First, they use a jeep to round up the bison and drive them into a series of pens.

Then, two or three of them are let into "the tub." The employees use tasers and tin cans on sticks to get the bison into the chute system. (You can see the gate just to the right of the guy in the corrugated tin can thing.)

Each bison is put into the squeeze chute where the biologists will check the animal's health, give innoculations if needed, put in ear tags or microchips (the chips replaced branding), and/or conduct an ultrasound, if the animal is pregnant. Since the ultrasounds were done internally, it's a tossup on whether they were more unpleasant for the animal or the biologist.

This is Aaron's boss Amy checking a bison's health, and his co-worker Joel watching.

After the long, scary ordeal, the animals are sent back out to pasture for another year.

Daddy and Noah overlooking the calf chute.