Wildlife center preps wood bison for release into wild

February 04, 2010

Though the center is now closed on weekdays, it spent time this week checking the health of wood bison. (Dan Carpenter/KTUU-DT)

by Lori Tipton
Wednesday, February 03, 2010

PORTAGE, Alaska -- The wood bison herd in Portage is undergoing another health checkup.

This week at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, state veterinarians and biologists with Fish and Game are teaming up for the final disease testing on the herd.

They're using a new method to test some of the animals.

"This is actually a fairly huge undertaking, handling over 80 bison twice in one week," said Randy Rogers, a wildlife planner with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

This makes the third time these animals have undergone testing.

This time, it's for parasites and tuberculosis.

Wednesday, five of the largest males were tranquilized, one at a time, before their check up.

In mid-March last year during testing, a large male became agitated and charged a handler.

He walked away from it, but no one wanted to see that happen again.

"The safest ways for both humans and for them to do the testing is to tranquilize them, to knock them out, to work on them while they're out," said Cathie Harms, a wildlife biologist for Fish and Game.

Once tranquilized, veterinarians and their staff quickly moved in.

"They're checking the animals' health status for oxygen levels, the blood gases, lactate, glucose levels," explained state veterinarian Bob Gerlach.

"When they're down, we take the advantage of going ahead and giving a shot of vitamins and also going ahead and giving a wormer, or a medication to prevent the worms," Gerlach said.

The crew only had about 20 minutes to check each animal before administering an antidote to reverse the tranquilizer.

That's when everyone immediately cleared out to give the groggy bison a lot of room.

"It's always surprising when you see how large they are, how rapidly they can move, and how powerful they are," Gerlach said.

This is the final phase of disease testing for the wood bison.

"It's been a long project and it's pretty exciting," Harms said.

Fish and Game says it hopes this is also the last time these animals will be handled before they are released into the wild.

The Alaska Wood Bison Program is the largest endangered species preservation project in the world.

Fish and Game says it hopes to re-introduce the wood bison herd sometime within the next two years.

Three sites in Interior Alaska have been selected, but a final site has not been determined yet.

Contact Lori Tipton at ltipton@ktuu.com

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