Episode 1: For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People
Episode Length: 29:00
FocuS
This episode introduces the tensions between humans and bison in and around Yellowstone National Park, the Interagency Bison Management Plan, and why bison leaving the park are taken to slaughter
Keywords
biology, disease, brucellosis, history, land management, migration
Episode Outline
These outlines are intended to help you locate ideas and topics more easily, but these are narrative episodes with many interlocking themes and ideas, so you may want to share segments that cross multiple points in the outline.
MINUTES: 00:00 - 04:00
Yellowstone National Park and how we nearly lost the bison in North America.
04:00 - 07:10
Why bison are killed annually in the park.
07:11 - 10:10
Controversy over bison migration in the West.
10:11 - 12:01
Bison are protected inside Yellowstone National Park and seen as dangerous intruders outside the park.
12:01 - 13:45
Brucellosis origin and potential transmission to cattle.
BREAK
14:20 - 16:23
Bison management program in Yellowstone.
16:25 -18:29
Interagency Bison Management Plan.
18:30 - 22:10
Tension over land use between bison, humans, and cattle.
22:11 - 29:00
Wild versus domesticated bison.
Video Excerpt
The decline of the American bison, and why it’s remarkable to see so many of them in Yellowstone National Park today.
Visuals in order
Footage of bison in Yellowstone
George Catlin’s 19th-century painting, “Buffalo Hunt; Approaching in a Ravine”
A stereograph print from 1925 of the small herd of bison that remained in Yellowstone