A market for survival

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, July 7th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: saving the American bison.

The classic folksong “Home on the Range” extols the virtues of a “home where the buffalo roam.” One man in Tennessee actually has one of those homes.

REICHARD: Jason Gaw is the owner of the Lazy G ranch. For him, raising bison isn’t just a business. It’s about preserving American history.

WORLD Senior Writer Emma Freire traveled to Cookeville, Tennessee.

SOUND: [Gate opening and car door closing]

EMMA FREIRE: Jason Gaw gets out of his car to open the gate to the meadow dotted with bison.

GAW: Usually they usually know we've got good things.

The bison start lumbering over as soon as they see the car.

SOUND: [Bison eating]

Gaw has brought their favorite treat: bread. Just a regular loaf from the supermarket.

GAW: They don't get a lot of grain. The main staple of their diet is grass. So we want to, we want to keep it as natural as possible, but you know it's hard not to give them a treat every now and again.

A bison sticks its huge head in the car window. Its giant tongue protrudes from its mouth. Bison tongues have the texture of sandpaper.

GAW: Native American females used to use the tongue as a hairbrush. They would, after they would use every part of the bison, and when they would harvest one, they would dry out their tongues and use it as a hairbrush.

SOUND: [Bison eating]

But raising bison is challenging and even dangerous.

GAW: A bison actually put my father in the hospital. They had to lifeflight him to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. It attacked him, and it's one that we bottle raised. They look like you can give them a big hug, but they are still a wild animal.

The Lazy G Ranch sits on 250 acres about 40 minutes east of Nashville. It’s home to about 230 bison. But that number is going up fast as more baby bison – which are called red dogs – are born.

Gaw has a deep affection for his bison.

GAW: I think they're just such an amazing animal.

He says they have traits that surprise most people.

GAW: They can run almost 40 miles an hour. They can jump anything they can lay their head, their chin up on. They can smell water from five miles away. They can communicate with one another from two miles away. They have almost infrared vision. They're very nearsighted, but still they can see at night much better than we can.

He says bison also have family instincts. Herds are led by females. Thelma Lou leads the herd in this meadow. The females work together during birthing season.

GAW: You'll see all the mothers congregate and create like a nursery area, and they won't let anybody else in that nursery area, and there'll be another area for those mothers about to give birth, and the men are, you know, the bulls, they have to go off and talk football or whatever they want to do.

Bison are the national mammal of the United States. They used to roam across most of North America including this part of Tennessee. Experts estimate there may have been between 30 and 60 million of them. But by the late 1800s they nearly went extinct. But thanks to careful effort and hard work, bison came back from the brink of extinction.

GAW: We're back at 400,000 now.

Gaw would like that number to go even higher.

GAW: We want to grow the herd. We actually, we love to sell starter herds for, for folks.

In order to protect herds like this, some people have gotten creative.

ADVERTISEMENT: At Ted's Montana Grill we bring hard work, integrity, and hospitality to our classic American menu.

In 2002, the late media mogul Ted Turner started a restaurant chain called Ted’s Montana Grill. Turner wanted to help save bison by building a commercial market for bison meat.

More recently, demand for bison meat has surged due to renewed interest in healthy eating, particularly healthy protein.

GAW: Bison meat has less fat than chicken or salmon. It has, you know, dense vitamins and minerals, it's just really healthy.

Gaw sees God’s design in bison and his Christian faith animates his care for them.

GAW: God gave us charge of the animals and such. I think it's, it's part of God's design, and even though these are a wild animal, I think their lives are better because of the work that we're doing.

Gaw’s family has lived in this part of Tennessee since the 1800s. His grandfather bought the ranch and now Gaw shares it with others. He invites school groups to see the work he does here.

GAW: I have school groups that are coming here, we can take up to 120 kids at a time out in the field and feed the bison and teach them all about bison.

Gaw’s hope is that one of his own children will eventually take over the ranch. And another generation will learn to appreciate the American bison.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Emma Freire in Cookeville, TN.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.