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Hunting Wyoming's Wild Bison -- Part 2
(Continued from Part 1)
My first stop was at the Wyoming Game and Fish Department's Jackson office, an attractive, rustic building with a nice gift shop and a friendly staff. I handed them my cashier's check for $2,100, and they handed me my treasured license. They handed me a bunch of other stuff too.
The small numbers of hunters involved in the bison hunt make it a good vehicle for a close relationship between the hunters and the WG&F. They gave me a kit for collecting biological samples from the bison, something that would help them understand the health of the herd, and something that I was happy to help with. They wanted a tooth, which would be used for aging the bull. They also asked for a 1-inch square chunk of meat, which they would use towards constructing a DNA profile of the Jackson herd, useful information in building a forsenics-based case against potential poachers. Finally, they asked for a tube of blood from the bull, something they could use to test for the prescense of brucellosis, scourge of the cattle industry.
In turn, I pumped them for as much information as I could get. Where were the bison hanging out? Had earlier hunters had success? Were they getting bill bulls? Or were the bulls staying on the Elk Refuge and on Grand Teton National Park, areas that were off-limits to bison hunters?
There are essentially three areas where hunters can find wild bison during the Wyoming hunt. All of them are on the fringes of areas where hunting is not allowed, so there's tremendous pressure on the hunters to make sure they kill their bulls on the correct side of the invisible, imaginary, but all-important boundaries. You have to be damn sure that your bull is on National Forest land, not on the Park or the Refuge.
The southernmost area borders the Elk Refuge. The border with the National Forest zigs and zags confusingly, but is signed every 50 yards or so. The country is open grassland.
The central area borders Grand Teton National Park. The terrain is thicker here, mostly open forest land.
The northermost area, also bordering the Park, is the largest, and I believe holds the most bison. But, it had snowed recently, and everyone I talked to told me the roads in this area would be impassable. I've made some crazy hunts before, penetrating inadvisably-large numbers of miles in to the wilderness and away from my truck, but even I didn't relish the idea of packing a bison for miles back to my truck. So, this was the only area I didn't hunt on my trip.
I spent much of my first day in Jackson learning the lay of the land. I drove to the southern and central hunt areas, and walked the boundary between the National Forest and the closed areas. It was well-signed, but you really had to walk the line to get a feel for exactly where it ran. Knowledge of boundaries was more critical on this hunt than any other I had previously taken.
Exploring the southern area, I quickly found a steaming-hot bison pie on the legal side of the boundary. I glassed up two big bulls just inside the Refuge, and knew that just before I had arrived they had been on legal ground. Frustrating, but it was only the first day. I watched the two bulls for quite a while, hoping they would wander my way when they got up, but they never did. Still, it was a great chance to spend some quality time wildlife viewing. Bison are amazing animals.
I found the southern area tricky to hunt. The boundary zig-zagged and was hard to keep track of. It seemed that even if the bison did cross it, they were likely to do so only by a few yards, making any shooting opportunity seem like it would be a very close shave. Accordingly, I shifted my attention to the central area.
To get there, you drive through Grand Teton National Park until you can access National Forest. Passing through the Park, I had great opporunities to see antelope, Shiras moose, and bison. Large herds of cows, calves, and younger bulls spend the vast majority of their time in the Park, finishing off the summer's grass and enjoying the immunity from hunting. As I drove through the Park, a group of bulls blocked the road in front of my truck. One of them turned towards me in utter disdain, lowered his head, dropped his lower jaw like a gorilla and let out an absolutely disturbing growl as he stared at me with contempt. Clearly, this guy wanted to kill me. A slow, squashing, unpleasant sort of death.
I've hunted for a while and had some interesting experiences, and I admit to getting pretty damn jumpy while doing things like packing caribou quarters in the dark through grizzly-infested tundra, but I had never actually been scared while hunting before. This bull, glowering and growling at me, scared the crap out of me, even while I was in my truck. Bison are the King Kong of North American game animals. It was truly humbling to be around them.
After surviving my passage through the Park, I entered National Forest started looking for bison. Without luck. I saw deer and elk sign, and I glassed up a pair of matching moose sheds, but I did not see any bison.
After a long and somewhat unproductive first day, I went back to town and back to the drawing board.
(Continued in next installment.)
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