Fort Worth Nature Center's bison get their annual checkups

Each year, the bison at the Fort Worth Nature Center get a morning of medical attention. This year's roundup moved nine animals through a series of gates and into a chute, one at a time, so they could be examined and treated. Getting animals that size to cooperate takes planning. Jared Hall, natural resource supervisor at the nature center, says the animals grow more anxious once they are penned, so his crew works with the herd's habits. "If we can get a mom to go in the chute first, the babies will usually follow," Hall said.

Once inside the chute, the animals receive a set of preventive treatments. Staff deworm each bison and check it for parasites, then give it vaccines for a respiratory disease. Females also get a brucellosis shot. Hall considers the herd central to the site itself. The bison graze roughly 240 acres of pasture, and he sees them as a key part of how the landscape is managed.

The roundup also gives students in Texas Christian University's ranch management program a chance to learn on the job. They help move the animals through the facility while studying bison behavior. TCU professor Lee Knox said the work shows students how the animals respond to pressure and what it takes to handle bison in a facility. Student Jacklyn Chambers, who had only seen the herd from a distance, called the experience "really cool."

The checkups take a single morning. Afterward, the animals are back on the pasture within moments.

This story was originally reported by Juan Carlos Chaoui for NBC 5 DFW.