Lehigh County soon may donate a young member of its bison herd to a zoo in upstate New York.
If county commissioners approve the donation, the male bison will find a new home in the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, N.Y.
The county owns a small herd of 10 bison at its Trexler Nature Preserve near Schnecksville.
Their care is managed by Lehigh Valley Zoo, which is located within the preserve.
County officials explain the male to be donated, which was born at the preserve in 2013, “is coming into age and will become a challenge to the existing dominant male. This will cause care problems for the herd.”
“We knew that if we had birthed a male, we probably would have to move that bison two or three years later,” said Rick Molchany, the county’s director of general services, who also is former president and CEO of Lehigh Valley Zoo.
“We did not want to manage multiple males fighting for dominance.”
No commissioners had any objections on first reading of a bill approving the donation Wednesday night.
They will take final action on the bison at their next meeting on Feb.11.
“The zoo that’s asking us for the donation is accredited,” Molchany assured commissioners.
He also said Rosamond Gifford Zoo will be responsible for the transportation, noting: “It’s very difficult to move a male bison.”
“Do we have free visitation rights to this bison?” asked Brad Osborne, chairman of the nine commissioners.
The county hopes to expand the size of its bison herd to 15, but Molchany said all but one of them will be female.
A managed breeding program to increase the size of the herd was initiated in 2011.
Commissioner Michael Schware supports donating the young bull but expressed concern that increasing the size of the bison herd may create a potential additional expense for the county.
But Molchany told commissioners 15 bison would be the ideal size for what the county has budgeted “for all the medical, food and accommodations the bison need in the preserve.”
Suggesting commissioners should have a discussion about management of the bison herd, Schware also said bison in the preserve “are not exactly roaming the great open prairies of the Midwest.”
The commissioner said they are kept “in a relatively confined spot.
“I have no way of measuring their happiness, but it seems very crowded where we have them. And I have to wonder how five more buffalo would impact that.”
Schware also said he’s no expert on what bison eat, “but I can see what’s next to what they eat.”
Molchany later said the bison have two enclosures at the nature preserve, one covering 10 acres, the other 15 acres.
He said they are rotated between those enclosures “so we don’t create a mud pit.”
Molchany said the first bison were brought to what originally was known as Trexler Game Preserve in 1911 by Lehigh County philanthropist General Harry Trexler.
He said during a tuberculosis outbreak in the 1950s, the county completely wiped out the herd because of a fear that disease would spread.
But he said bison were returned to the preserve a few years later and have been there ever since.
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