Fermilab bison herd

A bull and four cows were first brought to the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory as a visual reminder of the idea science is a frontier.{{cite magazine| title=The Enduring Mystery of the Higgs Boson | last1=Jacobs | first1=Tom | magazine=Miller-McCune.com | date=Nov–Dec 2008 | volume=1 | issue= 6 | pages=84–85}}{{cite journal|title=Book Review: Quantum physics on the prairie | last1=Fliege | first1=Stu | journal=Illinois Heritage | date=March–April 2009 | volume=12 | issue=2 | page=35}} In 1971, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources added 21 head. The bison herd added a utopian dimension to a physics lab that was associated in the mind of the general public with the terror of the Bomb.{{Cite journal |last=Ploeger |first=Joanna S. |date=January 2002 |title=The art of science at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory: The rhetoric of aesthetics and humanism in the national laboratory system in the late 1960s |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07341510290028765 |journal=History and Technology |language=en |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=23–49 |doi=10.1080/07341510290028765 |s2cid=145564689 |issn=0734-1512|url-access=subscription }} The herd was also explicitly a tourist attraction. The bison were meant to be classic symbol of Americana, familiar from Western-genre stories and films, for visitors from overseas; for domestic visitors, the opportunity to visit the bison marked the lab as an accessible populist space, rather than as a secretive quasi-military government installation. The historian Edward Tenner suggested in Wilson Quarterly that the curved towers of the Alan H. Rider-designed Fermilab admin building represent a cathedral of science and innovation that, in combination with the bison herd and the prairie restoration, projected "exuberant hope for the future [bound with] profound respect for human and natural heritage."{{Cite journal |last=Tenner |first=Edward |date=2006 |title=The Future Is a Foreign Country |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40261356 |journal=The Wilson Quarterly |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=62–66 |jstor=40261356 |issn=0363-3276}} The animals are contained by two layers of fencing, {{Cvt|12|ft}} apart and with one ring tall enough to block a potentially {{Cvt|6|ft|m|adj=on}} vertical leap. The fences are marked with warning signs designating the grounds as a dangerous high radiation area, which serve as a further deterrent despite there being no radiation danger to civilians at Fermilab.

The Fermilab herd is one of 12 federally managed "buffalo" herds in the United States.{{cite journal |last1=Boyd |first1=Delaney P. |last2=Gates |first2=C. Cormack |date=Spring 2006 |title=A Brief Review of the Status of Plains Bison in North America |journal=Journal of the West |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=15–21}} Most of the federal herds are managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and partners; Fermilab's herd is solely managed by the Department of Energy. All of the government-owned herds are considered conservation herds; there were about 50 conservation herds in North America circa 2006. (Hundreds of thousands of other bison are owned by commercial ranching operations.)

Both the bison herd and the prairie are part of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Environmental Research Park.{{Cite journal |last=Sluis |first=William |date=September 2020 |title=Dark Diversity in Restorations: What's missing? |url=http://er.uwpress.org/lookup/doi/10.3368/er.38.3.180 |journal=Ecological Restoration |language=en |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=180–192 |doi=10.3368/er.38.3.180 |s2cid=221142243 |issn=1543-4060 |via=Ebscohost|url-access=subscription }} The Fermilab herd of DuPage County, and two other herds established during the 21st century at Nachusa Grasslands (Ogle County–Lee County) and Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie (Will County) represent the first bison to live in Illinois since the early 1800s.{{Cite journal |last=Morrissey |first=Robert Michael |date=2019-11-01 |title=Climate, Ecology and History in North America's Tallgrass Prairie Borderlands* |url=https://academic.oup.com/past/article/245/1/39/5540345 |journal=Past & Present |language=en |issue=245 |pages=39–77 |doi=10.1093/pastj/gtz018 |issn=0031-2746|url-access=subscription }} Testing has found that the Fermilab display herd of indigenous Bison bison does not have any introgression of either mitochondrial or nuclear DNA{{Cite web |title=Mammals at Fermilab |url=https://ecology.fnal.gov/mammals/ |access-date=2023-02-05 |website=Fermilab Nature and Ecology (ecology.fnal.gov) |language=en-US}} from domestic cattle (Bos taurus).{{Cite web |last=Shivni | first= Rashmi |date=2016-01-27 |title=The genetic purity and diversity of the Fermilab bison herd |url=https://news.fnal.gov/2016/01/the-genetic-purity-and-diversity-of-the-fermilab-bison-herd/ |access-date=2023-02-03 |website=Fermilab News |language=en-US}}

Twitter-suggested names for a bison calf born at the lab in 2016 included Higgs Bison, Bison Tennial, Niels Bohrson and Neil DeGrass Bison.{{Cite journal |last=Woolston |first=Chris |date=2016-05-12 |title=Higgs Bison or Niels Bohrson? Twitter offers names for Fermilab's baby bison |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=533 |issue=7602 |pages=149 |bibcode=2016Natur.533..149W |doi=10.1038/533149f |issn=0028-0836|doi-access=free }}

The herd got up to 160 head in the 1990s but is now kept to about 20 to 25 animals.{{Cite news |last=West |first=Rick |date=2013-05-11 |title=Suburban man cares for Fermilab bison| newspaper=The Times | location=Munster, Indiana | agency=Arlington Heights Daily Herald

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/414377876/?clipping_id=118018912 |access-date=2023-02-05 |via=Newspapers.com |page=A5 |language=en-US}} The herd's bulls are changed out from time to time in order to prevent inbreeding depression.{{Cite news |date=2022-05-17 |title=Fermilab welcomes its first baby bison of the year |language=en |page=I17 |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/833649026/?clipping_id=118024178 |url-access=limited |access-date=2023-02-05 |via=Newspapers.com}} The bison get annual veterinary checkups but are otherwise left to their own devices. There is a bison cemetery on the laboratory grounds where they bury animals that die of old age; other animals are auctioned off to ranchers in order to maintain a herd size appropriate for the carrying capacity of the site.{{Cite news |last=Stephenson |first=Lynda |date=1988-09-23 |title=Fermi Buffalo They Roam on a Home Where Particles Collide All Day |language=en-us |page=2-1 |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/388533085/?clipping_id=118010812 |url-access=limited |access-date=2023-02-05 |via=Newspapers.com}} The Fermi herdsmen responsible for the bison, in cooperation with the lab's Roads and Grounds Department, work out of a converted dairy building that dates to around 1900.

According to one site caretaker, the most important thing to know about bison is "leave them alone."

Fans can observe the herd via a webcam. Visitors to the site must show valid ID; U.S. state driver's licenses must be Real ID-compliant after May 3, 2023.{{Cite web |title=Fermilab Hours, Maps and Directions |url=https://www.fnal.gov/pub/visiting/hours/index.html |access-date=2023-02-05 |website=Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (fnal.gov)}} Entrance gates are located at Pine Street Entrance in Batavia or Batavia Road in Warrenville. Summer hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The Lederman Science Center opens at 9 a.m. Monday through Saturday.

• Camp Pendleton bison herd

{{reflist}}

• {{Cite book |last1=Hoddeson |first1=Lillian |title=Fermilab : physics, the frontier, and megascience |date=2008 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |first2=Adrienne W. | last2=Kolb | first3=Catherine | last3=Westfall |isbn=978-0-226-34625-0 |location=Chicago |oclc=434595805}}

• [https://www.fnal.gov/pub/about/bisoncam/ Fermilab Bisoncam]

Category:Fermilab

Category:Bison herds

Category:1969 establishments in Illinois

Category:Natural history of Illinois