Beefalo

Did You Know?

• The term cattalo, a portmanteau of cattle and buffalo, is defined by United States law as a cross of bison and cattle with a bison appearance.
• In 1983, the three main Beefalo registration groups reorganized under the American Beefalo World Registry; in 2008 the two remaining associations formed the American Beefalo Association.

History and genomics

Accidental crosses between cattle and bison were noticed as early as 1749 in the Southern Colonies of North America. The first intentional crossbreeding occurred in 1815 when Robert Wickliffe of Lexington, Kentucky, conducted experiments that continued for up to 30 years. In 1880, Colonel Samuel Bedson, warden of Stoney Mountain Penitentiary in Winnipeg, bought eight bison from James McKay's captive herd and interbred them with Durham cattle; naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton described the resulting hybrids.

After a blizzard in 1886 killed thousands of cattle, Charles "Buffalo" Jones, co-founder of Garden City, Kansas, worked to cross bison and cattle near what would become Grand Canyon National Park, naming the result "cattalo" in 1888. In Canada, Mossom Martin Boyd of Bobcaygeon, Ontario, began the practice and published outcomes in the Journal of Heredity; after his death in 1914, the Canadian government continued experiments until 1964 with little success, having crossbred only 30 cattalos by 1936.

Early efforts found that crossing a male bison with a domestic cow produced few offspring, while a domestic bull with a bison cow was more successful; female hybrids were fertile but males rarely so. In 1965, Jim Burnett of Montana produced a fertile hybrid bull, and Californian rancher D.C. "Bud" Basolo developed the Beefalo breed in the 1970s without revealing its precise pedigree.

Effect on bison conservation

Most current bison herds are genetically polluted with cattle ancestry. Only four genetically unmixed American bison herds remain, and only two are also free of brucellosis: the Wind Cave bison herd in Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota, and the Henry Mountains herd in Utah. Dr. Dirk Van Vuren noted that bison carrying cattle DNA look and function like bison and are considered bison, with conservation interest focused on purity rather than function.

Environmental impacts

Escaped beefalo in the Grand Canyon have damaged parts of the ecosystem and ancient stone ruins, threatening native species. By 2015, the population was growing by 50% per year with at least 600 animals, and the park reported one accident per day from tourist interactions. In 2018, the park began trapping animals for transfer to Native American tribes outside the state and enlisted volunteer hunters to cull the herd, aiming for 200 animals; by 2022 the herd numbered 216, with only four taken by hunters.