Annual Buffalo Roundup and Arts Festival, www.custerstatepark.info
Custer State Park, Custer
Has one of the largest herds of buffalo anywhere, nearly 1,600. The Wildlife Loop road is prime buffalo range.
Bison roundup. This two day even is held the first Monday after the last weekend in
September. The herd thunders over hills, charging through ravines to a huge holding
area. This event is called “Feel the Thunder”. The bison are herded into chutes, branded,
vaccinated and culled out. After the roundup, the 950 that are culled are returned to roam the park.
Have you considered
.............the buffalo (bison) survive the heat of summer and the deep freeze of winters. Why aren’t there white bison? White reflects the sun’s summer heat which would make it a good summer color for bison. During the winter, the white would cause the bison to blend with the snow and not be easily hunted by wolves. But white bison are rare. White bison do not multiple but dwindle and disappear.
Bison have dark coats. During the winter, it absorbs the sunlight, giving it heat. Bison are just like elk and deer, during the winter they loose their appetite, producing less heat. Food is scarcer in the winter. Experiments have found they eat 30 % less food in February and March than in April and May, even when abundant food was provided. The bison need to stay warm in winter so they have dark coats. Their hair provides wonderful insulation. When an infrared device was used for a winter census, the elk and moose were clearly seen, but the bison hardly showed up. The bison appeared as crescents. The crescents were the bellies of the bison. The bison’s skin side was its body temperature while just fractions of an inch away the outer layer was below freezing. Humans loved the buffalo robe, it was highly prized; it kept them warm even in the most frigid of winter days. Every square inch of a bison’s skin is covered with ten times more hair than that of a cow.
Summers brought extreme heat, so bison would shed their winter coats. The constant winds on the prairies would blow away some of the heat. But still the sun is hot and the dark coat absorbs heat. Bison don’t sweat. However, they breathe. They lose their heat by evaporating water in their lungs. For evaporative cooling to work well, lots of water is needed.
The bison was designed to survive on the prairie with its extremes of hot and cold.
Lott, Dale F. 2002. American Bison. p.53-56.
Bison and the Indians
Bison were designed by God to provide the Indians the ability to survive on the vast plains of North America. These animals supplied thousands of Indians with food, clothing, and shelter. Every part of the bison was put to use.
Meat: used fresh or dried. In the autumn the meat has the best flavor. Indian would hunt and kill many bison in the autumn in order to cut and dry it into strips; this dried meant was call pemmican (jerky).
Hides: For durable clothing and tepees.
Stomachs, bladder content for holding nuts, berries and pemmican
Tallow: used for waterproofing
Hooves used to making glue
Dried dung: fuel for fires
Tail: for quiver for arrows.
Literally from tongue to the tip of the tail, virtually every part was designed to be used by the plain Indians. God provides us with what we need; God provided the plains Indians with a unique animal called the bison. Once abundant beyond comprehension on the Great Plains, they nearly went extinct. In the early 1800’s, an estimated 40 million bison roamed the plains of North America. One hundred years later, only a few hundred bison remained having been slaughtered by the tens of hundreds. These animals were slaughtered for their hides with the carcasses left to rot. The West was covered with the decaying bones of thousands upon thousands of slaughtered buffalo. Yet of all the millions that were slaughtered do we find any of their bones left? No, they have decomposed over the years. It takes very special conditions for a bone to turn into a fossil. Those special conditions would have been present at the time of the Flood of Noah’s time. During the 1800’s it was estimated that 40 million buffalo or American bison once roamed the vast plains of North America, within 100 years there were fewer than 1,000 left.
Bison have a sharp sense of smell and excellent hearing, with their eyesight being poor. They can run at top speeds of 35 mph for an hour and can also swim. These giant beasts chew the cud by grazing as they migrate. Wolves and coyotes are there only two enemies, except for man which slaughtered them during the 1800’s for their hides only. The early settlers left the caresses to rot. The West was literally covered with the decaying bones of thousands upon thousands of slaughtered bison. Yet of the millions that were slaughtered do we find any of the bones left? NO, they have decomposed over the years.
Evolutionists would like us to believe that a fossil that is hard as rock is made by an animal dieing and then slowly being covered with sediment. If this were true we should have lots of bison bones fossilized. In reality, it takes very special conditions for a bone to turn into a fossil. It needs fast, quick coverage of sediment so no air would be present (no decomposition) and lots of water. The water brings the minerals from the sediment to the bones and chances it into stone. What event in history would have lots of water and critters being covered with vast amounts of sediment? The Flood of Noah’s day. Fortunately today the bison are making a comeback and are flourishing on the plains of North America again.
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