When bison are tightly co nfined with other bison, their fear manifests as aggression in the form of goring and pushing those around them. Bison that are to be held in close proximity to other bison should be held with similar bison of the same age and gender. Sick animals should be held separately from healthy animals. Males and females should be held separately as should juveniles from adults. Training bison for routine husbandry procedures reduces stress.
Training is an effective low cost technique for the prevention of injuries and deaths.
Operant conditioning of bison has been quite successful. Training does not reduce wild type genetics. This is inadvertent domestication of bison. Bison present a unique management situation. Pasture bison are typically calm, easygoing, gamboling animals.