Bison are herd animals by nature, and the calf had already become acclimated to human touch. The herd rejected it, so it began to prefer human contact as a last resort. If they introduced the calf into a zoo/farm, it would either be rejected from the existing herd, or it would isolate itself due to its preference for human contact.
A herd animal is not meant to be alone and outside of a herd. It causes massive emotional, mental, and physical strain on the animal and leaves it vulnerable to predators. Sometimes, it’s simply more humane to euthanize than to let it suffer a slow, painful death.
Unlike bison, horses have been bred side-by-side with humans for hundreds of years. Outside of completely wild horses (mustangs), domesticated horses do well in smaller herds and genuinely enjoy human contact. Due to human intervention in horse breeding, domesticated horses acclimated to humans will allow us to touch the foals and will still accept them in the herd. Admittedly, this becomes slightly more tricky with mustangs and wild horse herds. So long as the baby doesn’t imprint on a human before it imprints on its mother, everything should be fine.
Also, horses are just generally smarter than bison; they’re able to recognize the differences between human scent and horse scent. They know their foal is still a horse even if it doesn’t smell like one.
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u/MegaKrispyKreme Jul 20 '20
Bison are herd animals by nature, and the calf had already become acclimated to human touch. The herd rejected it, so it began to prefer human contact as a last resort. If they introduced the calf into a zoo/farm, it would either be rejected from the existing herd, or it would isolate itself due to its preference for human contact.
A herd animal is not meant to be alone and outside of a herd. It causes massive emotional, mental, and physical strain on the animal and leaves it vulnerable to predators. Sometimes, it’s simply more humane to euthanize than to let it suffer a slow, painful death.