Therefore, it was not known if all calves were comfortable walking through the squeeze chute, or just the confident animals. This problem was not solvable in the context of this experiment. The dominant bull calf behaved independently of the other calves, which turned out to be beneficial in one aspect, as he progressed more rapidly than the rest of the group. The downside to this was that it was not possible for one person to move all seven calves as a group into the training area. Therefore, two people were used to move the group from their home pen to the training area.
Dominant animals tend to have a lower fear level than subordinate animals.
During the last week of training, aggression between the calves increased when the entire group was worked, versus splitting the group into subgroups. When the calves were split into two or more groups, the calves waiting to be worked always fought with each other. Placing fresh hay in the holding pen solved this problem. The authors of this paper would like to thank the many people and organizations who made this experiment possible. Colorado's Rawhide Energy Station and Claude Carpenter for allowing us to use their bison calves in this study, as well as providing the personnel to assist in the handling of the calves.