Bears Kill Cattle, Force Rancher To Turn To Bison

NARROW CAPE, Alaska - Bill Burton is a buffalo rancher, but he didn't get into it on a cholesterol-correct marketing whim. He started raising the shaggy-shouldered critters after hundreds of his cattle became bear bait on this wild corner of Kodiak Island.

Bison are herd animals - wild, big and protective. They don't take kindly to predators trying to pick off their young.

"They crowd up when threatened," Burton said. "They don't hesitate to use their horns. Calves pretty much go to the center of the herd. When they run, they run as a herd. Cattle just aren't that alert."

Burton, his wife, Kathy, and son Buck hold state grazing rights to about 24,000 acres. His operation, which fronts the Pacific Ocean and is 50 miles from the nearest community of Kodiak, is something of an anomaly in Alaska. Livestock aren't much of an industry here.

From a high of 700 cattle, they've reduced the herd to about 60 head. Along the way, someone suggested that they try raising buffalo. They brought up the first of their bison in 1980, from Wyoming. The herd now numbers over 200.

Blame that change in emphasis on the Kodiak bear. Wildlife managers think there's at least one bear per square mile or mile and a half on this Connecticut-sized island, 250 miles south of Anchorage.

"The Kodiak bear is a generic term for coastal brown bears," said Roger Smith, an Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist.

The largest of Kodiak's male bears weighs stands nearly 10 feet tall. Their front paws are strong enough to break a bull's back.

The weather is wet and windy yet mild on Kodiak Island, meaning bears don't always den up in winter. If they do hibernate, it's often for short periods. "I've lost cattle at all times of the year," Burton said.

Predation is simply another of the risks facing Alaska ranchers.

"One year out of 600 cattle, we lost well over 100 head - probably 125 head, to bears," Burton said. "One bear killed seven cattle in just one night. On average, we've had about 25 to 30 bear kills a year."

That tends to gut the Kodiak Cattle Co.'s already lean profit margin because a mature steer prices out at about $500 to $700, Burton said.

So enter the bison, which have been all but immune to bear attacks on the Burton ranch. "They've bred all the smarts out of cattle. Buffalo are still pretty savvy," Bill said.

Like most grazer and meat-eater relationships, bison and bears have had a long and uneasy time of it in the American West. But it may not have been as deadly as people believe.

"You read in the old Western stories that the bears killed bison . . . that they actually hunted buffalo," said Charles Jonkel, a retired biologist from Montana. "But it may have been mostly misinterpretations.

"Bears are carrion eaters. They may have been just cleaning up on bison that had drowned or had died in falls or some other way," Jonkel said.

Burton said he eventually plans to build his bison herd to 400 head and then add some elk. He intends to sell some for meat and offer guided hunts for a few of his trophy-sized animals.

No matter what game-animal mix the Burtons raise on their ranch, Kodiak's big brown bears will remain a major part of the equation.

"The concentration of biomass there is in so small an area that if you've got a bear that can smell all that - and their noses are their strongest asset - it will be hard for them to pass up," said Fish and Game's Smith.