Ep. 823: Restoring Alaska's Wild Buffalo

The MeatEater Podcast

MeatEater

Sports, Wilderness

4.9 • 37.9K Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2026

⏱️ 124 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Steven Rinella talks withTom Seaton, lead biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Wood Bison Restoration Project.

Topics discussed: Where and when buffalo are considered wildlife and not; how to bring wild buffalo to Alaska; how much habitat is really there for wild buffalo?; is there truly a conflict between agriculture and and bison, or is it just perceived?; the brucellosis red herring; what's wood bison?; when you end up with fewer animals alive than you introduced; how easy it is for bison to drown; the challenges to reintroduction; and more.

Enter the raffle for an Alaska mountain goat hunt: https://ohfak.org/raffles/chugach-mountain-goat/

Enter the raffle for an Alaska buffalo hunt: https://ohfak.org/raffles/delta-bison/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an IHeart podcast.
0:02.5	Guaranteed human.
0:12.8	This is the meat eater podcast coming at you, shirtless, severely bug-bitten, and in my case,
0:19.2	underwearless.
0:19.9	We can't put the meat-eater podcast. my case, underwearless. We hunt. W.D.E.A. Podcast.
0:22.6	You can't predict anything.
0:24.1	Brought to you by First Light.
0:26.6	When I'm hunting, I need gear that won't quit.
0:29.7	First Light builds.
0:30.9	No compromise gear that keeps me in the field longer.
0:34.7	No shortcuts, just gear that works.
0:37.3	Check it out at firstlight.com. That's
0:40.4	F-I-R-S-T-L-I-T-E.com.
0:47.5	Ladies and gentlemen, joined today by Tom Seton from Alaska Department of Fish and Game,
0:52.0	Montana Native, and Tom runs. You tell me the title of the programming run.
0:56.9	Wood Bison Project Biologist for Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
0:59.6	Yeah.
0:59.9	Sorry.
1:00.4	Wood Bison Project biologist.
1:02.7	Yep.
1:03.2	Okay.
1:04.8	Can I lay some context?
	...

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