[4] Bison occur almost anywhere on Antelope Island, including the northern end near the causeway, however most of them tend to congregate on the southeast side near the Fielding Garr Ranch.

The Denver Museum of Nature and Science includes a diorama depicting bison in this setting and the original specimen was collected from Lost Park, Colorado, in 1887.

"Twelve bison, 4 bulls (males), 4 cows (females) and 4 calves were taken by boat to the island on February 15, 1893, by William Glassman and John Dooly."

One of the early silent movies of the twentieth century, The Covered Wagon, was partly filmed on Antelope Island, where a scene requiring a buffalo hunt and a stampede were needed.

The animals are worthless - there isn't worse meat on earth to eat - and they ruin the whole territory for cattle grazing purposes.

When keeping the bison for hunting proved economically unfeasible, attempts to ranch them on Antelope Island were terminated.

This time he wanted to expand the cattle ranching on the island and to do this the number of bison needed to be reduced.

Governor Dern declined to prevent the hunt, stating "Antelope Island and the buffalo herd are privately owned.

"[9] The hunt took place with noted participants Ralph and Edward Ammerman of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and big game hunter J. O. Beebe of Omaha, Nebraska.

In 1981, the State of Utah purchased the Fielding Garr Ranch and the rest of the island, including ownership of the herd which was once again numbering in the hundreds.

Since that time, hunting has been restricted to only a few animals per year and the bison have been carefully managed and monitored for health and absence of disease.

Every year, in late October, all the bison are herded towards a central area in the Great Buffalo Roundup[10] and sent briefly into pens where they are examined, weighed and vaccinated and decisions made on culling and selecting breeding stock.

[11] The majority of the bison are then turned loose within a few days and allowed to roam free the rest of the year.

Some are also purchased at the pen site in a yearly public auction and are taken as meat or breeding stock for commercial buffalo farms in other parts of the world.

"Though some resent the notion of corralling a wild beast like the bison for what amounts to a physical, most understand that the state means to protect the herd.

"[14] Antelope Island has large areas of dry grass prairie and this provides a nearly optimum environment for bison.

With the advent of nuclear microsatellite DNA testing, the number of herds identified as containing cattle genes has increased.

"[17] A landmark study of bison genetics that was performed by James Derr of the Texas A&M University corroborated this.

He also said, "All of the state owned bison herds tested (except for possibly one) contain animals with domestic cattle mtDNA.

Genetic studies seem to show that the number of cattle genes in the bison on Antelope Island is very limited.

An example is a study published in the journal 'Science' that indicate that wolves with black coats have generally inherited that gene as a result of ancient wolf-dog hybridization.

It is estimated that perhaps 700 individual bison could live on the island without significantly degrading the environment or adversely affecting other species.

[24] Most[citation needed] wildlife managers feel this is currently unfeasible, saying that without culling they would soon overpopulate the island, causing ecological damage and would then undergo a population crash from disease and starvation.

Introduction of more animals, from Antelope Island, might result in the deaths of an equal number of already existent bison; it is expected they would displace already-present inhabitants since current ranges are generally close to carrying capacity.