Ranger Mike Laycock releasing a black-footed ferret
NPS Photo
When Wind Cave was established as a national park, all the emphasis was on the cave. The underground scenery was amazing visitors and geologists alike. The cave's major feature, boxwork, had never been seen before. At that time the reason for creating national parks was to protect amazing scenery such as Yellowstone or Crater Lake not ecosystems like the prairie. The acres of prairie above the cave were the domain of ranchers and farmers.
It was not until the late 1800s when the debate over the demise of the bison was raging that habitats were discussed. People like Teddy Roosevelt and William Hornaday knew that to save an animal from extinction one had to create sanctuaries for them. Their newly created American Bison Society began searching for a preserve for these "ungainly beasts" and discovered Wind Cave National Park's mixed-grass prairie. Through their efforts Congress established the 4,000 Wind Cave National Game Preserve in August of 1912.
The reintroduction of the animals began the following year. Today the park is a wildlife watcher's paradise. Herds of shaggy bison roam freely in the park. Bison share the landscape with a variety of other animals such as elk, pronghorn, deer, coyotes, prairie dogs, black-footed ferrets, and mountain lions as well as nearly 200 species of birds. Explore the park; drive the back roads; hike the trails; and enjoy the amazing array of wildlife living in this remarkable national park.
The view seen at Wind Cave National Park has not always been a serene prairie with bison peacefully grazing on the rolling hills. Wind Cave National Park is a work in progress. It is a project that began in 1903 with the establishment of the national park and continues to this day.
Pre-Western Expansion
The journey began as an attempt to restore pieces of the North American prairie to what it had been. To early people, the prairie was an endless sea of grass teeming with wildlife. The last half of the 19th century saw catastrophic reductions in both the wildlife and the prairie. By 1900, bison were nearly extinct and the numbers of pronghorn antelope and elk were seriously declining. It was out of these dark days that the beginnings of wildlife management was born.
Late in the 1800s, the plight of the bison attracted the attention of conservationists and hunting organizations. They witnessed the extinction of many species such as the passenger pigeon and the eastern elk. They wanted to make certain that other animals would not follow the same path. Organizations such as the American Bison Society and the Boone and Crockett Club began raising funds and seeking out lands where bison and other animals could be restored. In 1911, Wind Cave National Park and the surrounding area was selected as a place to start bison, elk, and pronghorn on the road to recovery.
A New Home
The rolling plains and ponderosa pine forest of Wind Cave National Park were superb habitats for prairie animals. The prairie, with its seemingly endless sea of grasses, was perfect for grazing. The forests provided shelter. The American Bison Society purchased lands adjoining the park and in 1912, a bill was passed in Congress creating the Wind Cave National Game Preserve. The establishment of the National Game Preserve was the most important event in the first quarter century of Wind Cave National Park. The park was small, poorly funded, and in a remote part of South Dakota. In fact, in 1910, Richard Ballinger, Secretary of the Interior, wrote about Wind Cave National Park in his annual report:
Owing to its inaccessibility and the fact that its scenic attraction is not sufficient, in all probability, to inspire a greater number of visitors to the park…(it) can never in any sense of the word become a national park.
Interest in the unusual animals that the Game Preserve protected provided an additional attraction for this small national park. This helped Washington administrators support a national park that safeguarded two diverse systems: the prairie and its wildlife and the cave beneath it. The game preserve was administered by the United States Biological Survey, Department of Agriculture. It started with a game ranch and 4,000 acres of land - part park lands and part lands donated by the American Bison Society. Thirty-four hundred acres were fenced as pastureland. The first 14 bison arrived in 1913.
The Journey Begins
The bison were a gift from the New York Zoological and the American Bison Societies. Simply getting these animals to the park was quite a story. Fred Dille, of the U.S. Biological Survey, was in charge of transporting the bison. In New York, the bison were loaded onto an express train. They arrived in Hot Springs, a 2000-mile trip, 2 1/2 days later. When the train reached Hot Springs, every available truck and cart was pressed into service to get the animals the remaining eleven miles to the preserve. This journey took ten hours! By the time the bison reached the preserve, quite a crowd had gathered to see them released. There was only one problem. The bison had no idea how to back out of a crate! This frustrating experience is summarized in the words of Dille:
To suggest to a buffalo that he must back out of the crate by poking him in the head… are but a challenge to him and he does not propose to give ground.
The final operation was more like removing the crates from the animals than the animals from the crate. At last, the bison were released and they wandered off into the sunset to begin their new life on the prairie. Fourteen bison were shipped to the preserve from the New York Zoological Society in 1913. In 1914, 14 Rocky Mountain elk from Yellowstone National Park and 13 pronghorn antelope from Alberta, Canada were added to complete the prairie scene.
Learning to Manage Wildlife
Because the practice of raising wild game animals under semi-natural conditions was relatively new, A.P. Chambers, the first warden of the preserve, experienced many challenges creating healthy, wild herds. The bison and elk survived with very little trouble. They quickly adapted to the park area and by 1920, the bison reached a population of 100 and the elk, 200. To keep the herd sizes in balance with the range, managers culled animals by selling them or moving them to other preserves. Raising pronghorn antelope was, perhaps, A.P. Chambers greatest challenge. These curious little animals seemed to die for no apparent reason.
Growing Herds
A.P. Chambers had almost no problems raising elk or bison. As these populations flourished, the problem soon became what to do with so many animals. As early as 1924, bison and elk were shipped to other refuges or sold as meat. After the Game Preserve was transferred to the park in 1935, the size of the range increased and the wildlife crowding problem diminished - for a while.
Even with the increased size, managers soon found themselves facing the struggle of balancing the ever-growing populations of elk and bison with a range whose health was in jeopardy. It was often necessary to provide feed for the animals. In 1940, the park wildlife report stated: sixty-five tons of prairie hay were purchased during the month for buffalo, making a total of 169 tons thus far this winter.
A serious program of animal reduction was needed. In 1930, a corral was built and bison and elk roundups were conducted. The least fit animals were slaughtered or live-shipped to stock herds in other parts of the country. In the 1940’s, the wildlife ranger thinned the herd by selectively shooting old, weak, or sick animals.
Protecting the "Peculiar Game Animal"
The Boone and Crockett Club hoped that the pronghorn at the Game Preserve could be used to furnish stock for other national game preserves and insure the perpetuation of this most interesting and peculiar American game animal. In 1918, with nine additional pronghorn sent to the preserve the total population was 23.
Even with additional animals, Chambers had trouble keeping the pronghorn alive. In a note to Washington, he stated: The antelope are not doing well.. . have plenty of feed, and am doing everything that I can ... By 1924, the population was down to 6 animals. A memo from Washington advised that all efforts should be made to protect the remaining antelope and ridding the preserve of predatory animals. Chambers took this advise seriously: before we give up the idea of raising antelope we should do everything that we can to combat the predatory animal situation.
The pronghorn population has fluctuated dramatically throughout the park’s history. In 1964, with more than 300 pronghorn in the park, seventy-five were herded in to Custer State Park. In 1998, fifteen pronghorn left the park during a snow storm, bringing their number to fewer than 30. Research continues today on these “curious little animals” in an attempt to ensure their existence within Wind Cave National Park.
Click here for more information about pronghorn and its behavior.
What is Killing the Pronghorn?
Eventually, Chambers realized that the problem was not totally predators. Part of the problem was understanding the pronghorn. In 1918 Chambers stated:
I put 8 head into the small pasture where I could have them under my sight. Three or four developed swellings on the jaws. I had read that this (actinomycosis) was a fatal disease. We have lost many antelope that have never been accounted for and it is more than probable that some of these were victims of this disease.
Pronghorn are the fastest North American land mammal and need space to escape predators. In 1926, Chambers summarized: The propagation of the antelope (pronghorn) is difficult. The only way this can be accomplished is by setting aside large tracts of land, left as natural as possible. The antelope will not thrive in confinement. Chambers died 2 years later of actinomycosis, which he caught from the animals he had worked so hard to save.
In 1935, when the game preserve became part of Wind Cave National Park, the Civilian Conservation Corps tore down the interior fences creating a larger range for all the animals. The Custer Recreational Demonstration land was acquired in the 1940’s and by 1964 the park had grown to more than 28,000 acres with a population of 300 pronghorn.
Kill the Killers
Because of the challenge of raising pronghorn, anti-predator feelings ran very high. Between 1912 and 1923, trappers killed 598 predators. They did not discriminate. Bobcats, coyotes, and wolves were high on the list, but porcupines, skunks, magpies, and even black-footed ferrets were targeted. Early reports always mentioned predators:
1919 - Mr. Beach has been successful in the extermination of predatory animals having killed 6 coyotes, 5 bobcats and 6 skunks. There are plans to exterminate all the skunks in the park.
1922 - Ranchmen ask permission to set (skunk) traps within the park. I encouraged them to help us exterminate the pests.
1922 - Mr. Knowles trapped 5 bobcats, 21 porcupines, 5 coyotes, 3 skunks, 1 raccoon, 1 black-footed ferret.
1927 - Archie Howes trapped 15 coyotes.
1934 - The Biological Survey reports 8 skunks, 12 coyotes, 1 raccoon, 9 porcupines and 1 bobcat killed or poisoned.
During the winter of 1922, Chambers reported: On January 1, 1923 we had twenty-one antelope. I set about to do better at propagation, but more troubles were in store. During the fall of 1922, I carried on a poisoning campaign against coyotes. I got 15, but as fast as I got one, another came... I was absent from the preserve during May and June, when I returned the herd was reduced to eight head, all does. Fortunately those eight gave birth to nine young.
Establishing a Carrying Capacity
The question of how many animals the plant communities can support has always been a challenging one. This “carrying capacity” must be carefully balanced to match the populations of animals to the capacity of the range so both the prairie and the animals stay healthy. In the late 1930’s and early 40’s, excess animals were driven into the Custer Recreational Demonstration Area, but the park size could not increase every time an animal was born. At times, the herds were reduced by slaughtering animals and giving the meat to local Indian Tribes.
In the 1950’s, the answer appeared to be herding excess bison and elk into Custer State Park. However, when many of the relocated bison tested positive for brucellosis, the state of South Dakota refused to accept any more. They did continue to help reduce the elk population. However, the culling technique used was “direct reduction” or shooting selected animals. A 1963 report states: There was good cooperation between State Park employees and this National Park, we believe this cooperative project will prevent the necessity of direct kill reduction of elk in Wind Cave for some years to come.
At the same time park managers at Wind Cave were using direct reduction to control herd size, so was Yellowstone National Park. This policy was opposed by the American public, and direct reduction to cull herds was halted in all National Parks.
Grazing Rights End
During the early years, the park and preserve issued grazing permits. In 1939, the practice was discontinued "to prevent erosion and in order that the range may regain its normal condition." Seeding the range with native grasses to rehabilitate the land became a common practice in the 1940’s and 50’s. Native prairie plants were better adapted to this environment and could withstand the pressures from grazing.
During the depression in the 1930’s, marginal lands were purchased by the federal government to help farmers move to better areas and to attempt to rehabilitate lands that had been subjected to drought and erosion. The idea was that, eventually, these places would be used as parks and recreation areas. The lands adjoining Wind Cave National Park were called the Custer Recreational Demonstration Area. In 1946, Wind Cave National Park acquired a large section of this land increasing the size of the park to 28,059 acres.
Mimicking Nature
The goals of wildlife management at Wind Cave National Park are to restore the landscape as close as is possible to natural conditions. This includes maintaining a population of bison and elk and the other residents of the mixed grass prairie.
Resource management also includes restoring and protecting the native mixed-grass prairie that supports the animals. The preferred method is to mimic natural processes whenever possible. The prairie has many challenges, with encroaching ponderosa pines being one. In 1972, the park began using prescribed fire to arrest the encroachment of pines onto the prairie. Prescribed fire is now a common tool used to protect the health of the prairie.
The diversity of the prairie ecosystem is also threatened by non-native plants. Of the 500 species of plants found in the park about 100 are non-native. Some non-natives, like Canada thistle, can out-compete native plants, create mono-cultures where native plants cannot survive. This loss of species diversity affects the food source for animals and the strength of the habitat. The park is currently waging war against non-native plant species.
A New Outlook
By the 1960’s, American attitudes towards wildlife and natural areas began to change. New methods of controlling populations of large mammals came into use. Managers of national parks began to focus on the parks as a whole, and began to manage to include all native forms of animal and plant life. Predators are viewed as an important part of the natural system and programs to eliminate them stopped. Biologists around the country began to re-establish predator populations in wild areas.
Researchers began investigating the intricate connections of the small mammals and the ecosystems. In the 1970’s Dr. John Hoogland began a project to understand prairie dogs in Wind Cave National Park. He found that these animals, once considered varmints, are actually keystone species in the prairie ecosystem. Today, the prairie dogs, black-footed ferrets, and many other animals that depend on the prairie are better understood. Their roles in the park ecosystems continue to be researched. Unlike past practices, animals are not labeled good or bad - their role in the park is carefully evaluated before control measures are taken.
Management
Today, the balance between herd size and plant communities is continually monitored. Excess bison are rounded-up; tested for diseases; and, when possible, live shipped to Indian Reservations and other parks and refuges.
Wind Cave National Park's tradition of reintroducing and protecting native wildlife and the land that supports them continues today. Between July 4 and November 5, 2007, forty-nine black-footed ferrets, one of North America's rarest mammals, and a predator, were reintroduced. In November 2010, another twelve black-footed ferrets were released. These elusive predators are once again a resident of the park's prairie dog towns where they play an essential role in helping restore balance to the ecosystem.
The methods of wildlife management have changed dramatically over the last 100 years as our knowledge and understanding of nature have increased. This can only continue if we study the natural processes that protect and control the ecosystems and make adjustments based on what we learn.
Learning From the Past
The early attempts at managing wildlife show clearly how limited our understanding of nature was, but the fact that attempts were made is of utmost importance. We would have lost a large part of our natural heritage without those attempts. These attempts became the basis of a growing and improving process that we are still striving for today.
Managing the natural resources of the park has been difficult and we have not overcome all the difficulties. Just as past managers struggled with brucellosis, over-population, droughts, and other issues, today's managers struggle with chronic wasting disease, drought, the invasion of exotic plants, and over-population within this 33,851 acre park. Like past managers, we will encounter many surprises, but the goal remains the same - protecting the animals, the prairie, and an exciting part of our heritage on the mixed grass prairie of Wind Cave National Park.
