NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/1196382
January-February 2020 • Nebraskaland 39 Bison and cattle are selective about both the species of plant they eat and its level of maturity, and their diet choices constantly change throughout the year. Young, tender, actively-growing shoots are their favorite, so animals are drawn to where those fresh shoots are abundant. Recently- burned grassland is extremely attractive to both bison and cattle because it creates a broad swath of vegetation in that early, highly-nutritious growth stage. Plants that have been recently grazed and are putting on fresh growth again are also strongly targeted by both cattle and bison. This means the grazers often focus on a particular patch of prairie for much or all of a season, re-grazing the same plants for as long as they keep producing new shoots. Perhaps the biggest behavioral diff erences between bison and domestic cattle is related to their use of wooded areas and water. Cattle tend to seek out the shade of trees during hot sunny days, but bison tend to avoid wooded areas except when they need something to rub against. Bison also don't often stand around in ponds or streams, polluting those areas with manure and disturbing sediment as cattle are prone to do. While cattle managers have to mitigate for the impacts of cattle hanging around shade and water, bison-grazed sites don't typically have those problems, especially when bison have plenty of room to roam around. Fire Historically, indigenous peoples recognized the attraction of bison to fresh grass growth and burned large patches of prairie, knowing they could come to that area later and fi nd bison to hunt. Bison would often concentrate within those large stretches of recently-burned prairie for most or all of a growing season, creating huge patches of short, sparse vegetation. Other wildlife species were drawn to those same patches too, including many birds, mammals and insects that prefer short habitat structure to the taller, more rank vegetation outside burned and grazed areas. Examples of those wildlife species included upland sandpipers, horned larks, jackrabbits, kangaroo rats, many species of grasshoppers, tiger beetles, dung beetles and other invertebrates. Predators of all those creatures, of course, followed their prey into those areas. Eventually, new fi res (or the eventual inability of plants to keep putting out suffi cient new growth after repeated grazing) would draw bison away to new foraging areas. This allowed the grassland community to begin recovering from its long period of repeated grazing. It often took a year or more for the most heavily impacted perennial grasses and wildfl owers to regain their dominance within the plant community. During that time, annuals and other opportunistic plant species The fresh growth of grasses after a prairie fi re are a strong attractant to bison.