Last Wednesday was spent harvesting bison as opposed to observing them. The tribes herd is mainly a source of income and it is necessary to sell the bison when the time comes. OSPRA is at the ready to collect samples from the bison, such as blood, reproductive organs, liver samples and digestive tract samples. My job was obviously the grossest. Being new, I had to have some kind of initiation. In this case, the newcomer has to measure the testicle circumference of the male bison. To do this, you need to firmly grasp the bottom of the testicles, squeeze and push up, and fit a tape measure around the widest part. Sweet job. Any comment that could be made inappropriate was…the beauty of working with all men.
My other job was to obtain rumen fluid. Where is this, you might ask? Just in the stomach. How do you get it? Oh, you cut it open…yeeahhh. Fortunately, the animal is processed in a truck, hidden from sight, and the unused parts are removed and set aside. I had the pleasure of reaching inside the stomach, squeezing the undigested material to release the fluid, and collect a decent amount in a jar/cup thing. To be honest, I’ve smelled worse things in my life, so this wasn’t too awful. It was just nice to have a break from observing.
The highlight of my day was easily seeing burying beetles on the discarded insides. I got way too excited and ran to grab my camera. Now, these were the beetles I studied in Oklahoma (the first part of this blog title: bugs), but we used these guys in some experiments and ran into them plenty of times. I’ll always have a strong bond with burying beetles thanks to that wonderful summer in OK.
Nicrophorous marginatus
from bugs to bison 