[HN Gopher] Bison rangers wanted to oversee U.K. herd
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Bison rangers wanted to oversee U.K. herd
Author : BayAreaEscapee
Score : 83 points
Date : 2021-01-20 13:58 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cbc.ca)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cbc.ca)
| benbojangles wrote:
| What's the difference between a Bison and a Buffalo.
|
| You can't wash your hands in a Buffalo.
|
| Brummie joke.
|
| Taxi!
| maybeOneDay wrote:
| Excellent, thanks for the chuckle.
| sandworm101 wrote:
| >> They'll be kept in by an electric fence
|
| No, they will be _encouraged_ to remain in the area by the fence.
| These aren 't cows. They are taller, hairier, smarter, and will
| presumably be keeping their horns. If push comes to shove bison
| can, literally, walk strait through standard electric fences.
| JoeAltmaier wrote:
| There's a reason corrals for bison aren't fenced with normal
| metal posts or even wooden posts - but sections of telephone
| pole or even cement pylons.
|
| But experience will come quickly. Just one time watching two
| males rough-housing and "Oh. I understand."
| ethbr0 wrote:
| We had a mild spook get into a herd coming down our path
| while fly fishing in Yellowstone. Cue ~20 bison thundering
| down a trail.
|
| I was on the other side of a boulder the size of an Escalade,
| and still didn't feel entirely safe.
|
| Some tourists do dumb things around them, but if you actually
| look it's _very_ apparent they 're both large and _heavy_.
| trhway wrote:
| >sections of telephone pole or even cement pylons.
|
| image of bulls hitting the pole reminded from the childhood
| back then - the corner of our multi-apartment house frontyard
| near the turn of the road leading to the tank range had a
| large cement pylon - as the tanks driving in column raise
| clouds of dust and so the tanks inside the column don't see
| much and sometimes would miss the turn hitting the pylon as a
| result instead of our house.
| tantalor wrote:
| Muldoon: "She had them all attacking the fences when the
| feeders came."
|
| Ellie: "But, the fences are electrified, though, right?"
|
| Muldoon: "That's right, but they never attack the same place
| twice. They were testing the fences for weaknesses,
| systematically. They remember."
| SteveGerencser wrote:
| Electric fences only encourage containment with our cows
| (Highlands). One of our bulls steps between the wires and lets
| the fence shock him on the back for minutes on end with him
| only moving slightly to reposition the shock. I think he is
| doing his own TENS treatment for a sore back. I really need to
| record him doing that one day.
| sandworm101 wrote:
| There is footage out there somewhere (1980s) of a cop using a
| tazer on a bull that got away from a rodeo. The bull just
| looks quietly at him as if to say "Um, you talkin to me?".
| Then a cowboy, on a horse, lassoes the bull and walks it back
| into the stadium.
| dtech wrote:
| Bovine hide is a lot thicker than human skin. The probes
| probably didn't penetrate.
| pradn wrote:
| In South Asia, bull herders often have nails at the end
| of their herding poles. I asked my grandfather if it
| hurts the bull, and he said, "of course not, they have
| thick skin".
| buran77 wrote:
| While the skin is undoubtedly thicker, the "of course
| not" may also be based on a misconception and/or
| generalization. The same kind of misconception alive
| today even in doctors when it comes to the skin and pain
| tolerance of black people, for example.
| ethbr0 wrote:
| I asked my dad (a practicing large animal vet at one
| point) if there was an equivalent to petting dogs... for
| cows.
|
| He thought about it for a minute and said, "Well, I knew
| a farmer once who scratched their backs with a garden
| rake. They seemed to like it."
|
| That put cow hide in context in a way other things
| didn't.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| You might be interested in this story of Henry Harpending
| going on a buffalo hunt in south Africa: https://web.archiv
| e.org/web/20170105231156/http://the10000ye...
|
| It's very funny throughout, but here's the buffalo being
| repeatedly shot with a rifle:
|
| > I aimed and fired. "Bang-whump", the bang from the rifle
| and the whump as the bullet struck the buffalo. He jerked a
| little, then simply stood there staring at me. "Bang-whump,
| bang-whump" as I fired two more rounds.
|
| > Now he tossed his head and snorted, then started running
| toward us. Buffalo charge with their nose high, only
| lowering their head to use their horns on contact. I fired
| one more round at the charging animal, head on, simply
| pointing at him because he was so close, then turned and
| ran. We discovered later that the bullet had struck his
| shoulder, ricocheted off his scapula, and exited through
| the skin on his side. It certainly didn't slow him down at
| all: I might as well have been shooting at a railroad
| locomotive.
| toshk wrote:
| Standard electric fences are also not enough to keep horses in
| if they see a reason to get out. They often jump or demolish
| fences.
| grecy wrote:
| They have a herd at the Yukon Wildlife Sanctuary, they're kept
| in by a steel re-enforced fence. As long as you keep them fed,
| they have no interest in wandering away.
| waffle_ss wrote:
| > smarter
|
| How do you figure that? Back in the 1800s bison hunters could
| clean out a whole herd, solo, because the bison would stand
| still as their fellow bison were being shot to death and
| dropping like flies around them
|
| Edit: not sure why downvoted (continued Redditification of this
| site I suppose) but dairy cattle for instance will scatter when
| being predated
| Smaug123 wrote:
| By the way, from
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html:
|
| > Please don't post comments saying that HN is turning into
| Reddit. It's a semi-noob illusion, as old as the hills.
| randycupertino wrote:
| On way HN and Reddit are alike- complaining about downvotes
| inevitably just brings on more downvotes!
| sandworm101 wrote:
| Because what you describe has nothing to do with
| intelligence. Whales are intelligent but respond to attack in
| much the same way as buffalo, a behavior that whalers use to
| more easily harvest them. Go back in time and start shooting
| at a Roman legion. They will form close defensive formations.
| Romans were not unintelligent.
| Normal_gaussian wrote:
| Firstly, your hypothetical legion is actually reacting in a
| way to prevent death. Secondly, if we were to continue
| killing the legionnaires without them having any success
| against us they will either retreat or break.
|
| I'm not certain of the sources of cows, bison, and whales
| reactions to their herd being killed; but taking the
| reactions as stated would certainly give pause for thought
| on gence.
|
| Markers of intelligence include awareness of the self,
| awareness of others in relation to the self, awareness of
| death. To not react to the murder of another member of your
| herd either requires a lack of fear of death, or a lack of
| one or more of tgose aforementioned markers of
| intelligence.
| mod wrote:
| I think it just means they don't have an instinct for how
| to react to ranged threats. Cows likely don't either, but
| their instincts are different and just so happen to work
| slightly better against guns.
| nkrisc wrote:
| I've seen bison up close in an enclosure in an animal
| sanctuary. It was pretty obvious that there was nothing
| actually keeping them in there apart from their own apathy.
|
| Bison go where bison want. If they want to stay where you've
| put them, then you're in luck.
| tyingq wrote:
| https://www.zarebasystems.com/learning-center/animal-selecto...
|
| Says it works if they have adequate food and water, but
| confirms nothing works sans that.
| t0mas88 wrote:
| I like the dry factual "Almost no barrier can stop a hungry
| bison."
| jessaustin wrote:
| Ocean? That would do it. Great Lake? Probably not.
| tyingq wrote:
| My immediate thought was the Hesco barriers the US army
| uses. Supposedly, they can hold against a big truck
| ramming them.
| Smithalicious wrote:
| Source on them being "smarter"? Many people think cows are dumb
| but they absolutely aren't.
| protomyth wrote:
| A buffalo is still basically a wild animal with all the
| survival instincts of a wild animal. A cow has been
| domesticated for agriculture. I get the feeling that's what
| people base the intelligence of the animal on.
|
| If I remember correctly cows don't exactly dig under snow for
| food where a buffalo will. Might matter what breed the cow is
| though.
| patrickk wrote:
| It sounds similar to the teething problems faced by an Irish
| dairy farmer who started producing Italian-style buffalo
| mozzarella with an imported herd:
|
| https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/buf...
| dboreham wrote:
| I live near wild bison. "The Feds" have a facility for storing
| the ones that wander out of the park. I can confirm that it
| looks like Guantanamo Bay. Otoh there are also farmed bison
| around here that seem to be contained by regular fencing.
| Possibly the gitmo security is to prevent humans getting in.
| DamnYuppie wrote:
| One thing that is different is that the ones on a ranch are
| trained since birth to know where their food is, they train
| them to come to bells and alarms and such.
|
| The truly wild ones will have no such habits or inclinations
| and will take awhile to get them trained so to speak.
| dboreham wrote:
| There's also a size difference. The domesticated bison are
| generally smaller. I believe they are cross bred with cow
| species to some extent. Ted Turner's bison are the large
| kind though, but very well coiffed.
| safog wrote:
| On an unrelated note, the older I get, the more it amazes me that
| there are so many ways to make a living in the world.
|
| Every day I discover a little part of the economy where people
| are not doing something bog standard and yet can make ends meet,
| have job security and have enough fun with their jobs that they
| can seemingly do them forever.
|
| On the other hand, there are so many more jobs where people are
| barely making ends meet and living paycheck to paycheck, so maybe
| it's more important to focus on that.
| alex_young wrote:
| I grew up across the road from the National Bison Range in
| Montana.
|
| This kind of thing can work well if you give them enough area and
| manage their migration properly.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bison_Range
| beauzero wrote:
| Pablo and then Ronan for me. Dad (Claar) was the lead wildlife
| biologist for Salish & Kootenai in the 80s and 90s. Good to see
| a few of us here. Believe it or not we are in Georgia now and
| there are Bison ranches down in south Georgia...pretty sizable
| ranches and they do well here too. Which side Mission or Dixon
| side?
| cal5k wrote:
| On a related note, Steven Rinella's book "American Buffalo: In
| Search of a Lost Icon" is mandatory reading for anyone interested
| in the history of these magnificent beasts.
| rupi wrote:
| His book 'Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine' is great as well.
| I always feel it is his most underrated work.
| DeBraid wrote:
| While we're at it, The Meat Eater podcast (no affiliation) is a
| fantastic resource for all things nature, ecology, natural
| history. IOW it's not dedicated exclusively to hunting, guns,
| cooking wild game meat (~50%).
|
| ~50% of the content is a undergrad-level education on nature:
| conservation, cultural & natural history of Earth (principally
| North America).
|
| A few favourites:
|
| *
| https://www.themeateater.com/listen/meateater/ep-197-eating-...
|
| *
| https://www.themeateater.com/listen/meateater/ep-162-landsca...
|
| List of Popular Meat Eater Podcasts:
| https://www.owltail.com/podcast/36913-meateater-podcast/best...
| ThisIsTheWay wrote:
| A few seasons of the Meat Eater show are on Netflix as well.
| I have been very impressed with the production quality -
| filming a hunt in extreme terrain and weather conditions has
| to be such a challenge, but every show is fantastic.
| ThisIsTheWay wrote:
| I'm on page 104 right now and I cannot put it down. Highly
| recommended to everyone, but especially those who are into the
| natural history of North America. My wife is probably so tired
| of me talking about random bison facts, but its her own fault
| for getting it for me for Christmas...
| zarkov99 wrote:
| This is amazing. I did not realize there were any European bison
| left at all for thousands of years, where were they hiding them?
| Darmody wrote:
| Romania.
|
| https://ec.europa.eu/easme/en/news/wild-bison-back-mountains...
| maxrobot wrote:
| Poland
| eCa wrote:
| Specifically in Bialowieza Forest[1], which straddles the
| border with Belarus.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bialowieza_Forest
| Someone wrote:
| See also
| https://blog.nature.org/science/2017/08/22/remarkable-
| story-....
| pvaldes wrote:
| Similar projects had been tried several times in Spain since
| decades, with none or low success at long term. Animals dying
| poisoned or being stolen was not uncommon after farmers
| protesting. The animals need also a lot of supplementary food and
| space to thrive and of course CAN'T be left wild and roaming at
| their own will, specially close to roads. Hunters and farmers
| lobbies will always are problematic for their survival
| vermontdevil wrote:
| Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo
| blacktulip wrote:
| >> European bison, like this one, will be introduced to roam in
| the wild in the Blean woods near Canterbury, England, next
| spring.
|
| OK this is where I live. I sometimes take walks in the Blean
| woods. Should I worry about an accidental encounter?
| protomyth wrote:
| Well, yeah. Treat them as any other dangerous wild animal you
| encounter. Plus, a bison will stomp a small car with minimal
| effort.
| londons_explore wrote:
| They generally won't attack unless you move.
| nitrogen wrote:
| Some bison will attack unpredictably. Antelope Island in Utah
| seems to have some aggressive individual bison. Two
| experienced trail runners were attacked and a third killed in
| the space of about a year.
| ldiracdelta wrote:
| Look up "Yellowstone Bison" encounters. Bison are NOT
| domesticated cows.
| sgt101 wrote:
| Domesticated cows are pretty dangerous. If they get the idea
| that they need to hurt you, they hurt you. A friend of mine
| was nearly killed by a cow a few years ago - as luck would
| have it the cow tried to crush him into some boggy ground so
| he wasn't _all that_ crushed. If it had been solid ground he
| 'd have been as dead as nails.
| pbhjpbhj wrote:
| Walkers in the UK get injured by cows more regularly than
| one might expect, a particular issue is that dog-walkers
| try to protect their dogs and get trampled: advice is to
| let the dog go as they can usually escape.
| randompwd wrote:
| > They'll be kept in by an electric fence, according to Smith.
|
| Not unless you're a ghost.
| OnlyMortal wrote:
| What could go wrong? Will it be followed by releasing apex
| predators to keep their numbers under control?
| mushbino wrote:
| Yes. Humans.
| sandworm101 wrote:
| >> Should I worry about an accidental encounter?
|
| Don't worry. The electric fence will keep _you_ out of _their_
| territory.
| Someone wrote:
| There are European bison in the wild in, of all places (I
| wouldn't expect them in such a densely populated country), the
| Netherlands (https://www.wisenten.nl/en/netherlands)
|
| https://www.wisenten.nl/en/yourself gives guidelines for
| visitors.
| vaduz wrote:
| They have only recently (2007) been reintroduced there by
| importing them from the Poland - Blean Woods have used that
| as a model for their own import.
| falcolas wrote:
| ...
|
| Crazy. I've been around enough bison (at Yellowstone National
| Park and other nearby locations) to know that you probably want
| at least some exposure/experience with bison. They're larger than
| moose, aggressive, and they range quite a bit.
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(page generated 2021-01-20 23:01 UTC)