Understanding the Other Side

Post by 2022 student Jocelyn Wood 

In Dr. Jachowski’s section of the class, we got to do a little more travel than we had done before. We traveled to America’s first national park, Yellowstone, to investigate the effects of wildlife on a landscape. Funnily enough, wildlife seems to be the most controversial of the subjects covered in this class. The wildlife found in these areas provide constant battles for landowners, but they can also be a great learning tool for everyone. 

Here in Montana, you have vast grasslands that are home to many kinds of animals. Coyotes, bears, elk, moose, pronghorn, bison, mule deer, ground squirrels, and prairie dogs, to name a few mammals. It seems like with every animal comes a headache for livestock owners. The biggest being the transmission of disease with cattle and wild animals. Brucellosis is a disease that causes calves to be aborted and it is spread between cattle elk and bison when they investigate an abortion site. Ranch owners make most of their money by selling calves or keeping them to sell for meat, so when their entire herd gets infected, they won’t make hardly any money that year. Therefore, people in Montana have issues with allowing elk and bison to leave Yellowstone Park and roam. When we spoke with Tony Mong, a big game biologist for the state of Wyoming, he talked about some of the efforts they make to decrease this transmission of disease. Either by working on improving fence lines on the homeowner’s land or improving their natural grazing land, so they won’t be forced to going near private land. Another issue he spoke about is the conflict between bears and livestock. Living so close to Yellowstone, which is estimated to hold around 700 grizzly bears, you are bound to have issues. Since the efforts into growing their population started, so have the issues with livestock being killed. Tony spoke on how his department must give money to landowners whenever they lose livestock to coyotes or bears. Naturally, because of this, there is a hatred of large carnivores by the local landowners. The controversy comes into play when we think about who was there first. Whose fault is it by providing food to animals who have always lived there. Animals that will do what they must to survive. 

Another problem causing animal, found more in the prairie grasslands ecosystem, is the ground squirrels, prairie dogs, and groundhogs. They dig underground systems of tunnels to live in and provide safety from predators like eagles, hawks, and coyotes. Their issue comes from the cattle trying to graze that land. If a cow steps in their hole and breaks their ankle, it’s going to take a lot more time and money to try to get it better compared to killing it. Either way, they’re going to lose money. While on the ranch we saw guys set up on a pasture with guns shooting ground squirrels. 

If the animal doesn’t affect you personally, it’s easy to just judge people for wanting to get rid of them but you must put yourself in their shoes. You must think about what you would do in that position. Would you continue year after year losing cows and thousands of dollars?

I personally would speak with the local officers, like Tony Mong, whose main job it is to work alongside landowners and help educate them on the best methods of conservation of livestock and wild animals. I think this was my favorite section, not only because of the wildlife, but also because of the aspect you gain from seeing the other side of the conflict and the different attitudes.