Declaration Dr. Thomas H. Pringle - Buffalo Field Campaign

Preface
Dale Lott grew up on the National Bison Range, and spent most of his adult life
studying bison behavior and ecology. This work culminated in a book titled, “American
Bison: A Natural History”. Chapter five of this publication, amusingly titled, “Digestion:
Grass to Gas and Chips”, discusses the remarkable digestive system of bison. At the end
of this chapter he touts the usefulness of fecal studies in wildlife, and for bison in
particular; “In their passage chips also pick up bison cells that contain the individual’s
complete genome. It is possible that they could reveal not only the individual’s identity
but perhaps the identity of its parents as well. So science will just keep chipping away at
the secrets in the belly of the beast….but few other ways are as humane and efficient as
chip analysis. No need to subdue the buffalo with a tranquilizing darts–and no worries
that hormone levels in the blood sample reflect short-term peaks or bottoms caused by the
trauma of the sampling. Little wonder then, that when the chips are down, the biologist’s
spirits are up. The investigator that at first seems a figure of fun, a dedicated pooper-
scooper, is really the very model of a modern-day mammalogist.”
Dale was right! The non-invasive fecal DNA sampling protocols I have developed
for population genetic studies of free-ranging bison, has just begun to reveal “the secrets
in the belly of the beast”. I have become the dedicated “pooper-scooper”, and hope to
continue the use of non-invasive fecal sampling to learn as much as I can about the wild
bison of Greater Yellowstone. And, who knows how much we will continue to learn
about these amazing animals through just sampling of their feces? Hopefully, we will
gain the information and insights we need in order to conserve them for future
generations.
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