 |
|
|
|
|
  
|
'Douchebag Bison' goes viral
Bison-flipping bull's actions not out of the ordinary: hunter Herb Mathisen Northern News Services Published Wednesday, November 23, 2011
A clip from the BBC's upcoming Frozen Planet series has gone viral on youtube.com, having amassed more than 1.6 million hits – as of Nov. 21 – since being uploaded Nov. 6. The 21-second video – titled "Douchebag Bison" - begins with an immature bison under attack by a pack of 10 wolves. Three bison rumble passed it oblivious, followed by a hard-charging bull that plows right through the young bison, effectively flipping it over, and allowing it to fall prey to the wolves while the herd gallops away. This popular clip was pared down from the full, four-minute segment that is set to appear in the documentary. The video has spawned more than 3,700 comments – most of which are of the four-letter word variety typical of online comment boards – with the majority expressing shock at the apparently callous actions of the bull. "Why didn't he just ram the wolves???" asks one commenter, 7commenter7. Others took a more humourous tack: "I heard Peta (sic) is now after that bison," writes the user, aresgil. It's the first time Stuart Macmillan, a park resource conservation manager, has witnessed bison acting in this fashion. He said it's really anyone's guess as to what the bull was thinking. Macmillan's theory is that the bison was attempting to ram the attacking wolves, but accidentally ran into the yearling. However, he agreed it was also possible the bison was attempting to protect the herd by sacrificing the yearling or even trying to boost the fledgling beast. "It's pretty hard to ascribe motive to a bison," he said. Gabriel Lafferty, an experienced hunter from Fort Resolution, said the bull's actions are not out of the ordinary. Lafferty said he used to help with bison round-ups when he was younger and he saw similar scenes play out. "Usually the bulls will kill the young ones in the corral like that because they are in the way," he said. "They would just put their horns right into them and they would flip them right over the eight-foot fence." Lafferty said the three to four-year old bulls are typically the most aggressive. Macmillan said the full-length video offers a more common depiction of a classic wolf-bison interaction. "Wolves will take whatever bison they can get. If they can get the herd running, they will often be able to separate out an animal and, often times, it will be a younger animal (rather) than a bigger one," he said. Oddly, some of the vitriol on the comment board is directed towards the wolves for attacking the helpless young bison and Macmillan said that kind of perception exists when people don't often experience the outdoors. "That's just nature," he said. "The wolves have to eat. The bison have adapted to that and the wolves have adapted to the bison and we see two healthy species as a result of that interaction." "For people who aren't used to seeing this kind of interaction and drama, it is a bit of a revelation. People that live up here, I think, are more used to that – if they don't see that, they see the evidence of it happening," he said. Regardless, Macmillan is pleased with the attention bison are getting from the video. "Despite the way it got so much exposure, I think the nice thing is that it does expose people to what does happen in the wilderness and it is a glimpse into that world," said Macmillan.
|
