The Time of the Buffalo by Tom McHugh

Author:Tom McHugh [McHugh, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-82835-4
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2013-04-10T00:00:00+00:00

On these western Canadian plains, buffalo seeking shelter in wooded zones made a paradoxical fall migration some distance north, and west, in stark contrast to the alleged migrations of plains herds toward the temperate south. Scrub islands bordering open prairie on the north side provided the only significant tree shelter, and thus herds seeking protection from numbing snow squalls were forced to migrate northward.

Erratic and unpredictable as these migrations into sheltering scrub may have been, local Indians were able to plan hunts around them, apparently with some success. At the start of the winter, the Assiniboin stationed their camps along a likely stream and awaited the approach of buffalo into the adjacent timber. The Mandan slaughtered large numbers around their villages when icy blizzards drove the animals into refuge in nearby woods, from which haven it was “often almost impossible to drive them out …” Blackfoot and Cree tribesmen hunted in the same fashion.

Although we cannot study modern herds for evidence to settle the question of the Great Migration, we still know of herds that make seasonal treks into wooded areas as their forebears did, and the habits of these animals shed light on the short-range movements of bygone herds. Our most detailed observations on such behavior come from Wood Buffalo National Park, where herds journey some distance to escape the discomfort of wind and cold. When zero and below-zero temperatures are combined with active winds, the animals may travel several miles into wooded areas in search of shelter.

As these buffalo besieged by blizzard conditions move into the cover of trees, they are behaving just as oldtimers said they did—and the fortunate student of buffalo migration comes upon a rare harmony of current fact and historical record. He is watching the herds of bison journeying as they journeyed centuries ago.

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