WHAT BISON SEE film
A new wildlife documentary on how bison relearned to migrate after near extirpation in the early 1800’s will premiere later this month and feature exclusive footage from HD camera collars affixed to Yellowstone bison.
What Bison See: Restoring Yellowstone’s Lost Migrations, presented by Yellowstone Forever and produced by Wyoming Migration Initiative at the University of Wyoming, will make its world premiere at the Old Faithful Visitor Education Center in Yellowstone National Park next week. You can watch the film teaser on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/migrationinitiative/bisonteaser.
The film tells how the National Park Service facilitated the recovery of migrations in the last free-roaming herd in the U.S. after a century and a half of conservation in Yellowstone, and how Tribal-led efforts are restoring the species today.
This is likely the world’s first-ever documentary filmed using HD camera collars on Yellowstone bison. With special access provided by Yellowstone Park biologists, the filmmakers documented the capture and GPS-collaring of four female bison in northern Yellowstone.
The story is told in part through map animations of bison migration paths recorded by GPS-enabled collars. By wearing the collars around their necks, several female bison also captured high-definition video of their calves and herdmates across the northern part of Yellowstone National Park through the seasons.
The full narrative includes wildlife footage, interviews, animations, and historical imagery.
What Bison See reveals the science of how the animals established the migration routes they use today, beginning with the first documented winter movement of bison in 1942, when approximately 130 bison left the Lamar Valley and made their way to just outside the town of Gardiner, MT.
The film has a particular impact in demonstrating the ecological benefits of large mammal migration. New research led by bison biologist, Chris Geremia, shows how thousands of free-roaming bison have become ecosystem engineers, increasing and diversifying soil microbes and boosting nutrient density in plants across the landscape.
Given the value of bison to the land and to indigenous peoples, efforts to restore bison to tribal lands and their historical range are being led by Jason Baldes at the Wind River Tribal Buffalo. Yellowstone bison are part of the herd, now totaling of over 200 buffalo, that tribes restored to Shoshone and Arapaho lands on the Wind River Indian Reservation. The film shares Baldes’ vision for seeing not only buffalo as wildlife return to western landscapes, but their migrations as well.
The fact that it took more than a century of challenging work to restore Yellowstone’s bison migrations points to the urgent, worldwide need to conserve extant large mammal migrations.
Featuring:
- Chris Geremia, bison biologist, Yellowstone National Park
- Janey Fugate, researcher, Wyoming Migration Initiative
- Jason Baldes, executive director, Wind River Tribal Bison Initiative
What Bison See is presented by Yellowstone Forever, the official nonprofit partner of Yellowstone National Park. The film was produced by Wyoming Migration Initiative at the University of Wyoming in partnership with the National Park Service.