Home on the Range: Great Salt Lake’s Bison Herd

Photographer: Ray Boren Summary Author: Ray Boren

Every autumn the 700 to 800 American buffalo, or bison (genus: bison bison), at Great Salt Lake’s Antelope Island State Park — which generally enjoy a free-range life on the 42 square mile (109 square km) isle — endure a brief roundup. Like a scene out of the Old West, the one-day main event draws volunteer horseback riders, who push the Utah herd toward management fence lines, and into a big handling area.

Inevitably, a few bison initially elude capture, such as the solo bull strolling across a golden plain in the photograph here, taken October 28, 2024. Meanwhile, most of the herd — gathered only a short distance away — is resting in large holding corrals, as illustrated in a second photograph, taken on November 2, 2024.

After the roundup the animals are sorted and given veterinary checkups in more confined corrals, where the bison, including the year’s 100 to 200 calves, receive tracking tags that link to computerized health records, the state park explains. They are examined and inoculated to prevent various bovine diseases. Scores of animals are separated out of the herd, to be sold at auction to other herds at public parks and on private ranches. The goal is to reduce the herd size to about 550 bison, a number that Antelope Island’s grazing range and food supply can maintain, pending the next season’s newborns. The transfers also benefit the overall genetic diversity of the scattered bison herds in North America.

Diversity wasn’t a problem when an estimated 30-60 million bison thronged the Great Plains and much of the rest of the continent around the year 1800. The species was almost extinct by 1900, when only perhaps 1,000 were left alive, as a result of hunting and extermination, sometimes as part of campaigns against Native American peoples. Today the bison population is back up to about 400,000 on the continent, according to the National Bison Association, which represents bison ranchers. More than 20,000 bison are in federal, state and other public herds, like those on Antelope Island and in Yellowstone National Park. Most are part of herds on private ranches and farms in the United States and Canada.

Today the once-threatened bison is an icon, especially in the United States and Canada, and among Native American tribes. Buffalo imagery is popular on seals and flags; on coins, such as various U.S. nickels and quarters; and as a sports team name and mascot for a variety of grade school, college and professional teams.

 

Antelope Island State Park Coordinates: 40.9581, -112.2146

Related Links: White Bison at Wyoming’s Bear River State ParkAntelope Island’s Winter WindsA Bison at Home on Yellowstone’s Range