Bison calf added to Green Castle herd
PHOTOS BY GARRY BRANDENBURG — A bison calf was born at Green Castle sometime over the weekend of July 15/16, 2023. The bison baby, sex undetermined at this time, is doing well. Its cinnamon light brown hair coat color contrasts with the dark brown of its mother and other yearlings from last year. In a few more weeks, the calves’ hair coat will also begin to darken. Active and running at will around the bison pasture, the calf seems to be enjoying fresh air and the company of its herd members. The bull bison meanwhile was content to roll in his dust, wallow and seemed unimpressed by his new offspring. The bison calf is estimated to have a birth weight of about 55 pounds. The cow might hit the scales at 800 pounds. The big bull is double that at an estimated 1,600 pounds, maybe more.
Bison, scientifically named Bison bison, are big animals. They are a representative today of a vast history of almost innumerable numbers of these shaggy haired plains bovines that once roamed the native grasslands of the Americas.
Their heritage includes a long list of ice age bison types, most of them of much larger body sizes. The huge bison herds that roamed those native pastures are long gone but still exist today in select sites across the United States and some portions of Canada and Alaska. They are far from extinct, just extirpated from many places where they once lived.
The small exhibit herd of bison at Green Castle are kept within an eight acre high fence pasture. Water is provided. Shade is provided by a grove of trees on the pasture’s east side.
Grasses within the pasture sustain these grazers, and supplemental hay is made available later in the fall and over the winter months. People who wish to observe these big animals will not have too far to travel from the Marshalltown area.
Green Castle Recreation Area is located five miles south of 14/30, then east three miles to Ferguson, and then one mile south. Enter the park drive and take the park roadway eastward toward the bison area.
Do bring binoculars to observe these large mammals if they are in a more secluded location. However, oftentimes they may be casually grazing anywhere within their pasture. Observers can walk around the telescope site which has a high fence to safely watch the herd.
Another bison herd, this one a bit larger, can be found in a drive-through pasture at Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge near Prairie City. This is a very large grassland complex of several sections of land, large enough to replicate the wide expanses of prairie landscapes that once dominated the Midwest.
Reconstruction prairies exist here whereby native prairie grass and many flowering non-grass plant species were planted during the past decades by dedicated staff. If one makes the journey to view bison at Neal Smith NWR, you may be lucky to see the herd close to the roadway, or not close to the road at all, being somewhere over a hilltop and out of view, which means you will have to make return trips to this refuge in persistent tries at your observation attempts.
Bison are superbly adapted animals to endure any and all types of weather conditions from hot summer days, to the coldest of winter weather events. They can take it all in stride, just as their kind has successfully done for over 1,000,000 years.
Some of the earliest bison species found their way over the Bering Land Bridge that has periodically connected Siberia to Alaska during periods of heavy glaciation phases of the earth. Glaciers locked up a lot of water as snow, and ocean levels were at times about 300 or more feet lower than today. The land bridge allowed all kinds of animals, and eventually people, to explore new territories as they worked their way into North America’s Canadian wilderness and into much of what we now call the United States.
An early bison species, long extinct, has had its fossil remains exhumed and reassembled by universities and other scientific institutions. From Alaska, Canada and places in Montana to the Dakotas, this very huge bison type once dominated the steppe-like grasslands where mile thick glaciers once covered the landscape. This early bison was named Bison latifrons, whose body size was about 25 percent larger, both in height and length, than our modern day bison. Latifrons bulls had horn cores that grew straight out from its skull and had a spread of over six feet. Add to this the horns’ keratin sheaths and this critter took on the appearance of a truly mighty bovine beast. Bison latifrons originated approximately 800,000 years ago during the early Pleistocene epoch and survived until about 75,000 years ago.
There were other intermediary bison types that filled the gap after latifrons. Examples go by the names given by scientists such as Bison antiquus, Bison priscus, and Bison occidentalis. Examples of these early bison type skulls can be found on display at the School of Mines and Geology at the University campus at Rapid City, S.D. Also at this museum are many skeleton exhibits of large marine reptiles that once swam in the Great Interior Seaway that even earlier in earth’s geologic past connected the Arctic ocean with the Gulf of Mexico.
Overall, the museum is a tremendous educational opportunity to learn about ancient life, in the sea or on the land. Bison were a major part of that mix.
All these early bison predecessors were adapted to the then climatic conditions that existed. Natural cycles of earth warmings post glacially, and then re-advances of new glacial episodes, created harsh conditions for many native North American animals.
These included wooly mammoths, mastodons, camels, rhinos, ferrets, pika, snowshoe hares, giant beaver, American lion, saber-toothed cats, giant short-nosed bears and dire wolves. They all lived in these wild settings until eventually they could no longer adapt to newer long term climatic shifts. The bison that did adapt and survives today is the animal you can see today at Green Castle and other locations in the Midwest.
When you visit Green Castle’s bison exhibit, take time to reflect on the long history of this majestic mammal, a true survivor. The baby bison carries on its tradition without any knowledge of its long pedigreed past.
However, you can learn and understand that lineage by research and reading about North American prairie landscapes through the ages. Enjoy.
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August is almost here, and in this new month, summer continues to be too warm, too cool, maybe too rainy, and definitely determined to show us humans that a transition toward fall season is inevitable. Aug. 1 day length will be 14 hours and 27 minutes. By the time the 31st arrives, we will have lost 1 hour and 14 minutes to put the last day of August at 13 hours and 13 minutes long. Such is the reality of earth’s orbital position around the sun.
From Aug. 10-20 is Iowa’s traditional State Fair held in Des Moines. I always enjoy some traditional elements of the fair. For me particularly, it’s the dairy livestock shown by 4-H and/or FFA members, young people learning the ins and outs of working with livestock.
Other livestock entries are also high on my list of things to see. I enjoy seeing the hard work of young people pay off with awards and blue or purple ribbons. Of course the State Fair is more than livestock. Rich traditions of showing the best of agriculture in all its forms is open for scrutiny and learning. Whatever your State Fair best feature is, enjoy it.
On the natural history side of the month of August, hummingbirds will at month’s end be prepared to depart southward. In wetlands with enough water, muskrats will be busy building huts and storing food for the winter.
Buck deer will begin to shed their velvet antler coverings as antler growth has reached full form. Deer hunting licenses will go on sale Aug. 14.
Swallows will begin forming large flocks in their preparation to fly south. Shorebirds are also early migrators. Also on the early migration card are Blue-winged teal and mourning doves. White pelicans by month end will have congregated to migrate, and on a weather note, Aug. 20, 1950, the earliest freeze took place across northern Iowa near Britt and Sibley with 30 degrees. For star watchers, the rings of Saturn may be viewed on the 27th when its orbit will have it closest to earth. A medium telescope will be needed to view this cosmic phenomenon.
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A reminder: Ducks Unlimited will host a five station clay bird shoot on Aug. 6. The place is the Izaak Walton League grounds southeast of Marshalltown. Register at 9 a.m. to begin. A fee of $20 for the course is required and $15 for any additional rounds a group of shotgunners may wish to undertake.
Call Sam Dixon for details at 641-750-6488. Help raise a few dollars for wetland conservation programs.
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Hunter safety class dates are set for Aug. 24 and 26. Sign ups to enroll can be found on the DNR website Iowadnr.gov/learntohunt.
This will be the final classroom setting for 2023 hosted by the Marshall County Izaak Walton League at Marshalltown. There are and will be other classes in other parts of Iowa.
However, for local folks, this class is designed for youth ages 12 to 18. There is no upper age limit to attend this class. If you are an adult and need the class to enable purchase of an out-of-state hunting license, this option is open to you.
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“A true conservationist is the person who knows the world is not given by their parents, but is borrowed from their children.”
— John James Audubon
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Garry Brandenburg is a graduate of Iowa State University with BS degree in Fish & Wildlife Biology. He is the retired director of the Marshall County Conservation Board. Contact him at PO Box 96, Albion, IA 50005.
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- PHOTOS BY GARRY BRANDENBURG — A bison calf was born at Green Castle sometime over the weekend of July 15/16, 2023. The bison baby, sex undetermined at this time, is doing well. Its cinnamon light brown hair coat color contrasts with the dark brown of its mother and other yearlings from last year. In a few more weeks, the calves’ hair coat will also begin to darken. Active and running at will around the bison pasture, the calf seems to be enjoying fresh air and the company of its herd members. The bull bison meanwhile was content to roll in his dust, wallow and seemed unimpressed by his new offspring. The bison calf is estimated to have a birth weight of about 55 pounds. The cow might hit the scales at 800 pounds. The big bull is double that at an estimated 1,600 pounds, maybe more.
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