Wood bison

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Wood bison
Temporal range: Late Pleistocene – Recent
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Waldbison Bison bison athabascae Tierpark Hellabrunn-13.jpg
A bull at Hellabrunn Zoo, Germany
Status TNC T3.svg
Vulnerable  (NatureServe) [1]
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Bovidae
Subfamily: Bovinae
Genus: Bison
Species:
Subspecies:
B. b. athabascae
Trinomial name
Bison bison athabascae
Rhoads, 1897
Wood bison
IUCN range of the two American bison subspecies.
  Plains bison (Bison bison subsp. bison)
  Wood bison (Bison bison subsp. athabascae)

The wood bison (Bison bison athabascae) or mountain bison (often called the wood buffalo or mountain buffalo), is a distinct northern subspecies or ecotype [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] 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. [9]

Contents

Name

The term "buffalo" is considered to be a misnomer for this animal, as it is only distantly related to either of the two "true buffalo", the Asian water buffalo and the African buffalo. However, "bison" is a Greek word meaning an ox-like animal, while "buffalo" originated with the French fur trappers who called these massive beasts bœufs, meaning ox or bullock—so both names, "bison" and "buffalo", have a similar meaning. Though the name "bison" might be considered to be more scientifically correct, the name "buffalo" is listed in many dictionaries as an acceptable alternative for American bison. In reference to this animal, the term "buffalo" dates to 1635 in North American usage when the term was first recorded for the American mammal. It thus has a longer history than the term "bison", which was first recorded in 1774. [10]

The "eastern bison" (B. b. pennsylvanicus) from the eastern United States, a junior synonym of B. b. bison [11] had been called "wood(s) bison" or "woodland bison", not referring to B. b. athabascae. [12]

Morphology

Bull at North Carolina Zoo Buffalo in the Rain.JPG
Bull at North Carolina Zoo

The wood bison is potentially more primitive in phenotype than the plains bison (Bison bison bison), while the latter probably evolved from a mixing of Bison occidentalis and Bison antiquus . [13] It is unclear whether today's animals preserve the original phenotypes existing prior to the 1920s. [13] The wood bison is larger and heavier than the plains bison. Despite a limited number of samples, large males have been recorded to reach 3.35 m (11.0 ft) in body length with 95 cm (3.12 ft) tails, 201 cm (6.59 ft) tall at withers, and 1,179 kg (2,600 lb) in weight, [13] making it morphologically more similar to at least one of the chronological subspecies of ancestral steppe bisons (Bison priscus sp.) and Bison occidentalis. [13] [14] It is among the largest extant bovids [15] and is the heaviest and longest terrestrial animal in North America and Siberia.

The peak of the wood bison's shoulder hump sits anterior to the forelegs, while the plains bison's shoulder hump is located directly above the forelegs. Wood bison also have larger horn cores, darker and woollier hair and less hair on their forelegs, with smaller and more pointed beards. [5] Plains bison are capable of running faster, reaching up to 65 km/h (40 mph), [16] and longer than bison living in the forests and mountains. [17]

Reproduction and behavior

Wood bison reach sexual maturity at age 2. [18] Females will often rear their first calf by age 3 and may produce a single additional offspring every 1–2 years. [18] Mating season typically runs from July to September, with most activity occurring during August as evidenced by the fact most calves are born in May following a 9-month gestation period. Bison young are precocial, with many mastering the skills required to evade predators, such as running and kicking, on the same day they are born. [19]

Reproduction is limited by the amount of habitat available. Bison tend to disperse when there is not enough food to sustain a population within the current range, which causes a decrease in population density, indirectly lowering the rate at which mating occurs. [20] [21] [22] Older bulls will typically have smaller ranges than female herds, because they live either solitarily or in smaller herds and therefore exert less pressure on the local forage. [20] Loss of functional habitat is a major ecological concern for this species due to the density-dependent nature of reproduction.

Wood bison are herbivorous grazers that feed primarily on grasses, sedges, and forbs. [23] Due to frequent and heavy snowfall in their native habitat, food availability fluctuates throughout the year, leading to a diverse and varied diet. Deep snow often creates a barrier between the bison and their food source, so they must use their large heads and neck muscles to dig for edible morsels. [24] After the temperature rises and the snow melts, wood bison also feed on silverberry and willow leaves in the summer. [23]

Adaptations

Researchers believe wood bison are beneficiaries of a natural law known as Bergmann's rule due to their sheer size. [24] Their increased body mass over their southern cousin, the plains bison, produces more heat and provides a larger frame on which to store fat for the winter months. This, along with several other adaptations, helps the animal survive in the harsh climate of northern Canada and Alaska. The wooly hair that covers the body is such an effective insulator that falling snow will collect on the bison rather than melting, further insulating the animal from the cold. [24] When food becomes more scarce in the winter, wood bison are also capable of slowing down their metabolic rate. [18] The primary benefit is slower digestion rates which means the animals are able to pull more nutrients out of each meal. This results in fewer necessary feedings to maintain energy demands. In addition to greater nutrient absorption, the slower digestion rate means more heat is produced as a byproduct of metabolizing the food, further contributing to maintaining body temperature.

Although wood bison are native to Canada and Alaska, they have also been introduced to Yakutia, Russia as part of an ongoing species restoration project. [25] Yakutia provides similar climatic conditions as in Canada, albeit with colder average temperatures. The Northwest Territories in Canada can drop as low as −60 °C during the winter months while areas in Yakutia, such as Oymyakon have been reported to drop as low as −71.2 °C. Despite the frigid temperatures, the bison herd is adapting well to the new environment. [25]

Threats

Translocation of plains bison into Wood Buffalo National Park in 1920s, resulting in collapse of wood bison. Corraling buffalo in Wainwright Buffalo Park (20752653102).jpg
Translocation of plains bison into Wood Buffalo National Park in 1920s, resulting in collapse of wood bison.

As with other bison, the wood bison's population was devastated by hunting, loss of habitat, and other factors. By the early 20th century, they were regarded as extremely rare.

Hybridization

Wood bison populations have been susceptible to hybridization with illness-infected plains bison, thereby polluting the genetic stock, the phenotype, and health condition. [26] Between 1925 and 1928, 6,673 plains bisons, compared to 1,500–2,000 wood bisons, were translocated from Buffalo National Park into the Wood Buffalo National Park by the Government of Canada, to avoid mass culling because of overpopulation, [27] despite protests from conservation biologists. The translocation was regarded as a severe tragedy because all the remnant wood bisons were thought to be hybridized with the larger numbers of plains bisons. [28] However, in 1957 a relatively pure herd of about 200 was discovered in an isolated part of Wood Buffalo National Park, [29] although gene flows likely occurred elsewhere within the park when the herd was discovered, and this herd unlikely remained completely isolated and did not preserve pure genes and phenotype. [13]

Thus the wood bison in the Wood Buffalo National Park are considered hybrid descendants. [13] However, a study in 1995 detected that there have been notable differences among each herd within the park, showing different degrees of hybridization. The herd at the Sweetgrass Station near the Peace–Athabasca Delta, as well as the Slave River Lowlands herd, preserved phenotypes relatively loyal to the original wood bison before the 1920s, being measured from degrees of morphological overlaps between pure plains bison, even surpassing the preserved herds at Elk Island National Park and Mackenzie Bison Sanctuary. [30]

Natural hybridization between wood and plains bison presumably occurred for a limited extent in the regions where the two ecotypes (or subspecies) overlapped. [31] Wood–plains hybrids are generally called "Parkland bison". [32]

As below-mentioned, disease-free and genetically unique populations of wood bison have been discovered in recent years. If these populations had little or no contacts with bison from Wood Buffalo National Park, there is a possibility that there are surviving pure wood bison.

Disease

Publicly owned free-ranging herds in Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories comprise 90% of existing wood bison, although six smaller public and private captive-breeding herds with conservation objectives comprise roughly 10% of the total, or around 900 head. These captive herds and two large isolated free-ranging herds all derive from disease-free and morphologically representative founding stock from Wood Buffalo National Park. These captive herds are particularly important for conservation and recovery purposes, because the larger free-ranging herds in and around Wood Buffalo National Park were infected with bovine brucellosis and tuberculosis after the plains bison had been translocated from Buffalo National Park.

Diseases including brucellosis and tuberculosis remain endemic in the free-ranging herds in and around Wood Buffalo National Park. [33] The diseases represent a serious management issue for governments, various local indigenous groups, and the cattle industry rapidly encroaching on the park's boundaries. Disease management strategies and initiatives began in the 1950s and have yet to result in a reduction of the incidence of either disease, despite considerable expenditure and increased public involvement.

Conservation

Historical range Bison bison athabascae historic map.svg
Historical range

The herd currently has a total population around 2,500, largely as a result of conservation efforts by Canadian government agencies. In 1988, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada changed the subspecies' conservation status from "endangered" to "threatened", where it remains. [34]

On June 17, 2008, 53 wood bison were transferred from Alberta's Elk Island National Park to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Anchorage, Alaska. [35] There they were to be held in quarantine for two years and then reintroduced to their native habitat in the Minto Flats area near Fairbanks, but this plan was placed on hold. [36] [37] In May 2014, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a final rule allowing the reintroduction of a "non-essential experimental" population of wood bison into three areas of Alaska. As a result, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game introduced the first herd of 100 animals to the Innoko River area in western Alaska in spring 2015. [38]

Currently, about 7,000 wood bison remain in wildernesses within the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba. [39] [40]

Ronald Lake Herd

Recently, several bison herds that are disease-free, and genetically unique compared to the populations within Wood Buffalo National Park (WBNP), have been detected. [41] These herds were once considered as merely split groups from WBNP bison, however members of First Nations and Métis community members claimed that they knew for generations that one of the herds, the Ronald Lake herd, is a separated population. [42] This, and genetical uniqueness and disease-free conditions of these herds indicate that these herds either remained isolated or had limited contacts with animals from WBNP despite being located adjacent to the boundary of WBNP. The Ronald Lake herd became particular interest among researchers and conservationists due to its genetic uniqueness and the extremely small sizes of other herds, and the herd became protected under a unique designation. [43] To strengthen the protections, a new sanctuary Kitaskino Nuwenëné Wildland Provincial Park was established in 2019 by a historic collaboration of the government and indigenous communities including first nations. [44]

Along with the Ronald Lake herd, much smaller Wabasca herd has also become a subject of special protection. [45] [46]

Introduction into Asia

Wood bison in Sakha Republic 384 Ust'-Buotamskii zapovednik.jpg
Wood bison in Sakha Republic

The reintroductions of muskoxen and the introduction of wood bison into Yakutia, Russia, were first proposed by zoologists P. B. Yurgenson in 1961 [47] and O. V. Egorov in 1963. [48] Compared to the first reintroduction of muskoxen in 1996, an outherd of wood bison was established as part of an international conservation project in 2006, [49] [50] [51] where the related steppe bison (B. priscus) died out over 6,000 years ago. Additional bison were sent from Elk Island National Park in 2011, 2013, and 2020 to Russia, bringing the total to over 120. [52] [53] A team of Russian and Korean scientists proposed a potential de-extinction of the steppe bison with wood bison in Siberia using cloning techniques. [54]

As of 2019, the number of bison increased to more than 210 animals, and a portion of the herd was released into the wild. To strengthen the restoration further, the Yakutia's Red List officially registered wood bison. [55] In 2020, 10 juveniles were translocated into a remote area to form the second herd. [56] Pleistocene Park in Yakutia originally wanted to bring wood bison into its enclosures, but failed to do so and brought in European bison instead.

See also

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, also called the American buffalo or simply buffalo, is a species of bison native to North America. It is one of two extant species of bison, alongside the European bison. Its historical range, by 9000 BCE, is described as the great bison belt, a tract of rich grassland that ran from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico, east to the Atlantic Seaboard, as far north as New York, south to Georgia, and according to some sources, further south to 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 constitute 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 about 3,000. It is one of two known nesting sites of whooping cranes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Species reintroduction</span> Wildlife conservation technique

Species reintroduction is the deliberate release of a species into the wild, from captivity or other areas where the organism is capable of survival. The goal of species reintroduction is to establish a healthy, genetically diverse, self-sustaining population to an area where it has been extirpated, or to augment an existing population. Species that may be eligible for reintroduction are typically threatened or endangered in the wild. However, reintroduction of a species can also be for pest control; for example, wolves being reintroduced to a wild area to curb an overpopulation of deer. Because reintroduction may involve returning native species to localities where they had been extirpated, some prefer the term "reestablishment".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bovid hybrid</span> Crossbreeds in the bovid family

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<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.

<i>Bison occidentalis</i> Extinct species of mammal

Bison occidentalis is an extinct species of bison that lived in North America, from about 11,700 to 5,000 years ago, spanning the end of the Pleistocene to the mid-Holocene.

<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 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> History of hunting of the American bison

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 US 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">Muskwa–Slave Lake forests</span> Taiga ecoregion of northwestern Canada

The Muskwa-Slave Lake forests ecoregion covers Canadian taiga in northwestern Alberta, northeastern British Columbia and a large portion of the southwestern Northwest Territories around the Mackenzie River valley and the Great Slave Lake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antelope Island bison herd</span> Population of bison in Utah, USA

The Antelope Island bison herd is a semi–free-ranging population of American bison in Antelope Island State Park in Great Salt Lake, Utah. Bison were introduced to Antelope Island in 1893. The herd is significant because it is one of the largest and oldest publicly owned bison herds in the nation. The Antelope Island bison herd currently numbers between 550 and 700 individuals. Though the bison on Antelope Island are Prairie bison, which was the most common bison subspecies in North America, the bison have a distinct genetic heritage from many of the other bison herds in the United States and they are considered to be desirable as part of the breeding and foundation stock for other bison herds, because of their separate genetic heritage and some of the distinct genetic markers that are found in the population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yellowstone bison herd</span> Oldest public herd in the United States

The Yellowstone bison herd is a bison herd in Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. It is probably the oldest and largest public bison herd in the United States, estimated in 2020 to comprise 4,800 bison. The bison are American bison of the Plains bison subspecies. Yellowstone National Park may be the only location in the United States where free-ranging bison were never extirpated, since they continued to exist in the wild and were not reintroduced.

The Henry Mountains bison herd, numbering 250 to 400 American bison, is one of only four free-roaming bison herds on public lands in North America. The other three herds are the Yellowstone bison herd which was the ancestral herd for the Henry Mountains animals, the Wind Cave bison herd in South Dakota and the herd on Elk Island in Alberta, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wind Cave bison herd</span> American bison in Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota

The Wind Cave bison herd is a herd of 250–400 American bison in Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota, United States. As an active participant in the conservation of American bison, it is believed to be one of only seven free-roaming and genetically pure herds on public lands in North America. The other six herds are in Yellowstone Park, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Henry Mountains, Blue Mounds State Park (Minnesota), Minneopa State Park (Minnesota), and Elk Island National Park. The Wind Cave herd are of the Plains bison subspecies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of bison conservation in Canada</span>

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the plains bison and wood bison in Canada were hunted by nomadic indigenous hunters and white hunters alike. By the 1850s, the bison was nearly extinct, spurring a movement to save the few herds that remained. Federal government wildlife policy evolved from preservation of wilderness to utilitarian, scientific conservation and management of bison populations. The goals of these policies were often contradictory: to simultaneously preserve wildlife, promote recreation, commercialize the bison, and assert state control over Aboriginal Canadians. Bison conservation efforts were shaped by the federal government's colonialist and modernist approach to Canada's North, the management of national parks and reserves, and the influence of scientific knowledge.

Ludwig "Lu" Norbert Carbyn is an internationally recognized expert on wolf biology, a research scientist emeritus at the Canadian Wildlife Service, and an adjunct professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta. He has studied wolf ecology and behaviour in Canada since 1970, including pioneering research into the ecological role of wolves as predators in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and great plains as well as the wolf-bison ecosystem of Wood Buffalo National Park. On a Canadian Wildlife Service assignment in Jasper National Park, he became the first human to study wild wolves from within a wolf pack using habituation, a method of gaining insights into the biology of wolves portrayed in fiction by Farley Mowat's popular book and film, Never Cry Wolf.

<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 1800s 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. Recovery began in the late 1800s with a handful of individuals independently saving the last surviving bison.# Dedicated restoration efforts in the 1900s bolstered bison numbers though they still exist in mostly small and isolated populations. Expansion of the understanding of bison ecology and management is ongoing. The contemporary widespread, collaborative effort includes attention to heritage genetics and minimal cattle introgression.#

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