Forty bison (and an extra one) released onto new reserve in Utah

May 2010: The first bison out of the trailer waste no time escaping into their new home in the Book Cliffs, in Utah after weather delayed the animals' release. Captured on the Henry Mountains in January, forty bison had been kept at Antelope Island State Park, while they waited for test results to confirm the animals were free from disease.

But, explained DWR biologist Dax Mangus: ‘Between the time of their capture and waiting for the result a series of big winter storms moved into the Book Cliffs and shut us down.

‘A couple of weeks later, we tried punching through with bulldozers. But the storms took care of that attempt as well,' Mangus said. ‘Every time we thought about moving them, a storm rolled in and shut us down.'

And when the biologists finally did manage to open the doors to the trailers, a total of 41 bison jumped out. The 41 animals included the 40 bison captured last January and a bonus animal - a newborn bison calf.

There were pluses to the setbacks, though: the storms that delayed the release dumped more water on the Book Cliffs than almost any area in Utah. Located in eastern Utah, the Book Cliffs received more than 150 per cent of its average precipitation. The vegetation in the area this spring looks the best it has in years.

‘In hindsight, the delayed release was probably a blessing,' Mangus said. 'The bison we released were bigger and had better weight than they had last winter.'

The delay also provided the bison with better weather and better range conditions than they would have had in January. ‘Who knows that might have happened to them if they had been released just before the biggest winter storm series in years rolled in and dropped four feet of snow,' Mangus said.