List of bison conservation herds in North America

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Conservation of American bison is heavily tied with conservation herds and the protected areas they roam. American bison occupy less than one percent of their historical range with fewer than 20,000 bison in conservation herds on public, tribal or private protected lands. The roughly 500,000 animals that are raised for commercial purposes are not included unless the entity is engaged in conservation efforts. [1] [2]

NameLocationOperatorHerd size
American Prairie Montana American Prairie Foundation 800+
Antelope Island State Park [3] Utah Utah State Parks 200
Badlands National Park [3] South Dakota National Park Service 1000
Banff National Park [3] Alberta Parks Canada 36
Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park Ohio Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks 10
Bear Butte State Park South Dakota South Dakota Department of Game, Fish, and Parks small
Bear River State Park [3] Wyoming Wyoming Division of State Parks and Historic Sites 10
Blue Mounds State Park [3] Minnesota Minnesota Department of Natural Resources 100
Broken Kettle Grasslands Preserve Iowa The Nature Conservancy 200
Buffalo Pound Provincial Park [3] Saskatchewan Saskatchewan Environment, Parks Branch
Camp Pendleton bison herd California USMC (Camp Pendleton Game Warden's Office)90
Camp Wainwright [3] Alberta Department of National Defence (Canada)
Caprock Canyons State Park [3] Texas Texas Parks and Wildlife Department 150
Catalina Island bison herd [3] California Catalina Island Conservancy 100
Chickasaw National Recreation Area Oklahoma National Park Service 3
Clymer Meadow Preserve [3] Texas The Nature Conservancy
Chief Mountain Wilderness Unit [4] Montana Blackfeet Nation 25
Chippewa Cree Tribal Buffalo Pasture Montana Chippewa Cree 11
Chitina herd [3] Alaska Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Copper River herd [3] Alaska Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Crane Trust Nebraska Crane Trust50+
Cross Ranch Nature Preserve [3] North Dakota The Nature Conservancy 200
CSKT Bison Range Montana Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes 500
Custer State Park [3] South Dakota South Dakota Department of Game, Fish, and Parks 1500
Daniels Park [3] Colorado Denver Parks and Recreation 30
Delta Junction herd [3] Alaska Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Elk Island National Park [3] Alberta Parks Canada 315
Farewell Lake herd [3] Alaska Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Fermilab bison herd [3] Illinois U.S. Department of Energy 28
Finney Game Refuge [3] Kansas Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks
Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge [3] Nebraska U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 350
Fort Peck Indian Reservation Montana Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes400
Fort Robinson State Park [3] Nebraska Nebraska Game and Parks Commission 150
Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge Texas Fort Worth, Texas 18
Genesee Park [3] Colorado Denver Parks and Recreation 33
Grand Teton National Park–National Elk Refuge bison herd [3] Wyoming National Park Service 1000
Grasslands National Park Saskatchewan Parks Canada 300
Hay-Zama Lakes Wildland Park Alberta Alberta Parks 400
Henry Mountains bison herd [3] Utah Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Bureau of Land Management 400
Hot Springs State Park [3] Wyoming Wyoming Division of State Parks and Historic Sites 15
House Rock State Wildlife Area [3] Arizona Arizona Game and Fish Department
Innoko National Wildlife Refuge Alaska U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 94
Janos Biosphere Reserve Chihuahua Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources 138
Kankakee Sands Indiana The Nature Conservancy 90+
Konza Prairie Biological Station [3] Kansas The Nature Conservancy, Kansas State University 300
Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area [3] Kentucky U.S. Forest Service 50
Maderas del Carmen Coahuila Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources 19
Maxwell Wildlife Refuge Kansas Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks 150
Medano–Zapata Ranch Colorado The Nature Conservancy
Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie Illinois U.S. Forest Service 50
Minneopa State Park Minnesota Minnesota Department of Natural Resources 30
Nachusa Grasslands Illinois The Nature Conservancy 130
Niobrara Valley Preserve Nebraska The Nature Conservancy
Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge [3] Iowa U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 50
Old Man on His Back Prairie and Heritage Conservation Area Saskatchewan Nature Conservancy of Canada 115
Ordway Prairie Preserve South Dakota The Nature Conservancy
Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park Florida Florida Department of Environmental Protection 10
Pink Mountain [3] British Columbia British Columbia Department of Water, Lands and Air Protection
Prairie State Park [3] Missouri Missouri Department of Natural Resources 100
Primrose Lake Air Weapons Range [3] AlbertaSaskatchewan CFB Cold Lake, Department of National Defence (Canada)
Prince Albert National Park [3] Saskatchewan Parks Canada 400
Raymond State Wildlife Area [3] Arizona Arizona Game and Fish Department
Riding Mountain National Park [3] Manitoba Parks Canada 40
Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge Colorado U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 150
Sandhill Wildlife Area [3] Wisconsin Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources 15
Sandsage Bison Range & Wildlife Area Kansas Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks 51
Smoky Valley Ranch Kansas The Nature Conservancy
Soapstone Prairie/Red Mountain Colorado Fort Collins, Colorado and Larimer County 100
Spring Lake Park Reserve Minnesota Dakota County Parks 12
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Kansas The Nature Conservancy, National Park Service 90
Tallgrass Prairie Preserve [3] Oklahoma The Nature Conservancy 2500
Theodore Roosevelt National Park [3] North Dakota National Park Service 800
Vermejo Park Ranch New Mexico and Colorado Ted Turner 1200
Wanuskewin Heritage Park Saskatchewan Wanuskewin Heritage Park Authority12
Waterton Lakes National Park [3] Alberta Parks Canada 6
White Horse Hill National Game Preserve [3] North Dakota U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 20
Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge [3] Oklahoma U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 650
Wildcat Hills State Recreation Area [3] Nebraska Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
Wind Cave National Park South Dakota National Park Service 400
Wolakota Buffalo Range South Dakota Rosebud Economic Development Corporation 100
Wood Buffalo National Park Alberta and Northwest Territories Parks Canada 3000
Yellowstone National Park Idaho, Montana, Wyoming National Park Service 4800
Commercial herds are not included. Listed herds remove excess bison on a regular basis which may be slaughtered for commercial purposes.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bison</span> Genus of mammals

A bison is a large bovine in the genus Bison within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European bison</span> Eurasian species of mammal

The European bison or the European wood bison, also known as the wisent, the zubr, or sometimes colloquially as the European buffalo, is a European species of bison. It is one of two extant species of bison, alongside the American bison. The European bison is the heaviest wild land animal in Europe, and individuals in the past may have been even larger than their modern-day descendants. During late antiquity and the Middle Ages, bison became extinct in much of Europe and Asia, surviving into the 20th century only in northern-central Europe and the northern Caucasus Mountains. During the early years of the 20th century, bison were hunted to extinction in the wild.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American bison</span> Species of bovid artiodactyl mammal

The American bison, commonly known as the American buffalo, or simply buffalo, is a species of bison that is endemic to North America. It is one of two extant species of bison, along with the European bison. Its historical range circa 9000 BC is referred to as the great bison belt, a tract of rich grassland spanning from Alaska south to the Gulf of Mexico, and east to the Atlantic Seaboard, as far north as New York, south to Georgia, and according to some sources, further south to northern Florida, with sightings in North Carolina near Buffalo Ford on the Catawba River as late as 1750.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beefalo</span> Hybrid of cattle and bison

Beefalo constitutes a hybrid offspring of domestic cattle, usually a male in managed breeding programs, and the American bison, usually a female in managed breeding programs. The breed was created to combine the characteristics of both animals for beef production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elk Island National Park</span> National park in Alberta, Canada

Elk Island National Park is a national park in Alberta, Canada, that played an important part in the conservation of the plains bison. The park is administered by the Parks Canada Agency. This "island of conservation" is 35 km (22 mi) east of Edmonton, along the Yellowhead Highway, which goes through the park. It is Canada's eighth smallest in area but largest fully enclosed national park, with an area of 194 km2 (75 sq mi).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wood Buffalo National Park</span> National park in Alberta and Northwest Territories, Canada

Wood Buffalo National Park is the largest national park of Canada at 44,741 km2 (17,275 sq mi). It is in northeastern Alberta and the southern Northwest Territories. Larger in area than Switzerland, it is the second-largest national park in the world. The park was established in 1922 to protect the world's largest herd of free-roaming wood bison. They became hybridized after the introduction of plains bison. The population is currently estimated at 3,000. It is one of two known nesting sites of whooping cranes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theodore Roosevelt National Park</span> National park in North Dakota, United States

Theodore Roosevelt National Park is a national park of the United States in the badlands of western North Dakota comprising three geographically separated areas. This park pays homage to the time that Theodore Roosevelt spent in the surrounding area and in the Dakota Territories before they were states. Roosevelt lived in the area after his mother and wife died hours apart on February 14, 1884. Theodore Roosevelt National Park is the only American national park named directly after a single person.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antelope Island</span> Island in the Great Salt Lake in Utah, United States

Antelope Island, with an area of 42 square miles (109 km2), is the largest of ten islands located within the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The island lies in the southeastern portion of the lake, near Salt Lake City and Davis County, and becomes a peninsula when the lake is at extremely low levels. It is protected as Antelope Island State Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie</span> Largest tallgrass prairie restoration area in the United States, located in Illinois

The Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie (MNTP) is a tallgrass prairie reserve and is preserved as United States National Grassland operated by the United States Forest Service. The first national tallgrass prairie ever designated in the United States and the largest conservation site in the Chicago Wilderness region, it is located on the site of the former Joliet Army Ammunition Plant between the towns of Elwood, Manhattan and Wilmington in northeastern Illinois. Since 2015, it has hosted a conservation herd of American bison to study their interaction with prairie restoration and conservation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wood bison</span> Subspecies of American bison

The wood bison or mountain bison, is a distinct northern subspecies or ecotype of the American bison. Its original range included much of the boreal forest regions of Alaska, Yukon, western Northwest Territories, northeastern British Columbia, northern Alberta, and northwestern Saskatchewan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Custer State Park</span> State park in South Dakota, United States

Custer State Park is a South Dakota State Park and wildlife reserve in the Black Hills of the United States. Located in Custer County, the park is South Dakota's first and largest state park, named after Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. The park covers an area of over 71,000 acres (287 km2) of varied terrain including rolling prairie grasslands and rugged mountains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CSKT Bison Range</span> Nature reserve for bison in Montana, US

The CSKT Bison Range (BR) is a nature reserve on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana established for the conservation of American bison. Formerly called the National Bison Range, the size of the bison herd at the BR is 350 adult bison and welcomes 50–60 calves per year. Established as a National Wildlife Refuge in 1908, the BR consists of approximately 18,524 acres (7,496 ha) within the Montana valley and foothill grasslands. Management of the site was transferred back to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in 2022 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after more than a century of federal management and nearly two decades of negotiations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plains bison</span> Subspecies of bison

The plains bison is one of two subspecies/ecotypes of the American bison, the other being the wood bison. A natural population of plains bison survives in Yellowstone National Park and multiple smaller reintroduced herds of bison in many places in the United States as well as southern portions of the Canadian Prairies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catalina Island Conservancy</span> US nonprofit organization

The Catalina Island Conservancy is a nonprofit organization established to protect and restore Santa Catalina Island, California, United States. The Conservancy was established in 1972 through the efforts of the Wrigley and Offield families. The Conservancy was created when both families deeded 42,135 acres (170.51 km2) of the island over to the organization—88% of the Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maderas del Carmen</span> National Park in Coahuila, Mexico

Maderas del Carmen is a biosphere reserve in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Bison Society</span> Organization to help save the bison

The American Bison Society (ABS) was founded in 1905 by the New York Zoological Society to help save the bison from extinction and raise public awareness about the species by pioneering conservationists and sportsmen including Ernest Harold Baynes, William T. Hornaday, Madison Grant and Theodore Roosevelt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bison hunting</span>

Bison hunting was an activity fundamental to the economy and society of the Plains Indians peoples who inhabited the vast grasslands on the Interior Plains of North America, before the animal's near-extinction in the late 19th century following United States expansion into the West. Bison hunting was an important spiritual practice and source of material for these groups, especially after the European introduction of the horse in the 16th through 19th centuries enabled new hunting techniques. The species' dramatic decline was the result of habitat loss due to the expansion of ranching and farming in western North America, industrial-scale hunting practiced by non-Indigenous hunters increased Indigenous hunting pressure due to non-Indigenous demand for bison hides and meat, and cases of a deliberate policy by settler governments to destroy the food source of the Indigenous peoples during times of conflict.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Prairie (nature reserve)</span> Nature reserve in Montana, United States

American Prairie is a prairie-based nature reserve in Central Montana, United States, on a shortgrass prairie ecosystem with migration corridors and native wildlife. This wildlife conservation area is being developed as a private project of the American Prairie Foundation (APF), a non-profit organization. The reserve covers 462,803 acres (187,290 ha). The organization hopes to expand it greatly through a combination of both private and public lands.

The Tallgrass Prairie bison herd is a population of American bison inhabiting the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in central Kansas. It is a public bison herd that has little evidence of cattle introgression.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conservation of American bison</span> Effort to increase bison in North America

The conservation of bison in North America is an ongoing, diverse effort to bring American bison back from the brink of extinction. Plains bison, a subspecies, are a keystone species in the North American Great Plains. Bison are a species of conservation concern in part because they suffered a severe population bottleneck at the end of the 19th century. The near extinction of the species during the 19th century unraveled fundamental ties between bison, grassland ecosystems, and indigenous peoples’ cultures and livelihoods. English speakers used the word buffalo for this animal when they arrived. Bison was used as the scientific term to distinguish them from the true buffalo. Buffalo is commonly used as it continues to hold cultural significance, particularly for Indigenous people.

References

  1. "To Save Species from Extinction, We Must Consider More than Just Numbers". In These Times. 2019-11-17. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
  2. Nargi, Lela. "Bison meat is hot. Ranchers are struggling to keep up". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 Boyd, Delaney P.; Gates, C. Cormack (Spring 2006). "A Brief Review of the Status of Plains Bison in North America" (PDF). Journal of the West. 45 (2): 15–21.
  4. Scott, Tristan (2023-06-28). "Blackfeet Bring Bison Home to Chief Mountain". Flathead Beacon. Retrieved 2024-12-03.