They're big, shaggy and unkempt, but they're healthy. In fact, nowhere in the United States are there buffalo any healthier. Or, for that matter, more distinctive.
Consider:- The Antelope Island herd is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, in the country. Much older, records now show, than the herd in Yellowstone National Park. Bison were brought to the island by barge in 1893. The Yellowstone bison were released from a private ranch in the 1930s.
- The very fact that no buffalo can leave the island or get on the island without help has kept the gene pool pure. No cattle genes here.
- Where once there were eight known bloodlines in the American buffalo, now there are nine. The Antelope Island buffalo carry a B-system allele never before seen in bison. This has made the island bison a very desirable commodity among breeders.
- And, because the buffalo are confined, it's possible to round them up each year for a complete physical and an annual series of vaccinations.
The final report is that the buffalo, all 700-plus head, are healthy and well, although not particularly happy with the whole procedure. The roundup and checkup are not something they come in for willingly, as scars on some of the equipment on the island shows.
This year, Dr. Joe Templeton of Texas A&M was on the island looking at still another arm of the bison's lineage.
He is, through DNA testing, comparing the early ancestors, before the "great bottleneck" in the 1880s, when the bison were nearly exterminated and then rebounded in numbers, and today's animals. He said he is able to do that by testing old skulls, long bones and hair from buffalo hides found in museums and in private ownership. He's comparing the old DNA with new samples, in this case, from Antelope Island.
"Really," he said, "there aren't big differences. The biggest difference is in the diet. The buffalo herds dropped from somewhere around (30 million to 60 million) animals to only a few hundred, but we see some gene survival among the different blood types.
"We have also found that some of the early settlers hybridized buffalo and cattle. Today, in some of the bison checked we've found the cattle gene. The first group of buffalo we checked here are free of the cattle gene. This makes them pure buffalo."
Each year in November the buffalo are rounded up by horseback, helicopter and vehicle and moved into holding pens near the northern tip of the island. In threes, fours and fives, the buffalo are herded into holding pens and then pushed through chutes one at a time.
At the end of the line is a hydraulic squeeze chute that grips the animal. Held securely, the buffalo are weighed, measured and vaccinated for parasites, clostridium, infectious bovine rhinotracheltis, bovine vibriosis and stress. Heifer calves are given the official calfhood vaccination for brucellosis, blood samples are taken and cows checked for pregnancy.
All of the buffaloes on the island carry a microchip implanted behind the ear. The chip identifies each buffalo. This ID carries such information as weight, blood type and previous inoculations. Each year this information is updated.
Because of problems that can develop with inbreeding, the Utah Division of Parks and Recreation, the agency that oversees the island, has brought in a number of bulls from other areas - about five each year, says park manager Tim Smith. The crossbreeding will lead to a herd that is bigger, bolder and even healthier than it is now.
After holding and feeding the buffalo for a few days this year, they were released to freely roam the island, until next year at this time, when it will be roundup and physical time again.