Limb Chicken
Active Member
The bison was a keystone element of the Great Plains for nearly 10,000 years, providing sustenance and materials for many of North America’s original human residents, and staple food for early explorers, fur traders, and early European settlers. The increasing human pressures of market hunting for meat to provision the fur trade, hides for the robe trade, and indiscriminate killing resulted in the near-extinction of the species by the 1880s.
About 500 bison survived the intensive subsistence and commercial exploitation during European settlement of the interior of North America in the 19th century. Survivors included about 200 plains bison in five widely separated private herds and one wild population (Yellowstone National Park), and 250 to 300 wood bison in one region in the northern boreal forest. Fortunately, following the bottleneck of the late 1800s, the surviving bison were located in separate populations that encompassed a high level of overall (pre-bottleneck) genetic variation. Protective legislation prevented extirpation and supported the recovery of the two remaining wild herds. The combined efforts of public and private interests have resulted in a current population of >500,000 bison in North America, distributed from northern Mexico to Alaska.
Although recovery efforts since the early 1900s and production under private ownership have increased bison numbers, a recent assessment of the conservation status of the species revealed that there are some serious challenges to conservation and recovery of bison as a wildlife species (Boyd 2003). The recovery of bison on public lands is limited or affected by a number of factors including several that originally led to its extirpation. Some of the most important pressures include habitat loss from agricultural development and other intensive land use, commercial bison production, reduction in genetic diversity, domestic cattle diseases, introgression of cattle DNA, obstructive and inconsistent legislation, regulations and policies, and the general misconception that the persistence of bison as a wild species is secure.
More than 95% of North American bison are privately owned, most of which are managed for commercial production. Selection for market traits (growth and reproductive performance, body conformation, docility) dominates management of private herds. Natural selection only operates fully in a few public herds. The presence of cattle genes is nearly ubiquitous among commercial herds of plains bison tested to date, a legacy of sustained efforts to create an improved domestic range cow through cross-breeding cattle (Bos taurus) and bison. Many public herds have also shown varying levels of cattle gene introgression. There are a limited number of free-ranging plains bison populations within original range states (one in northern Mexico, two in the contiguous United States of America, and two in Canada).
The status of wood bison in the wild is somewhat better, with 8 free-ranging populations. Although the subspecies was subject to some human caused hybridization with plains bison early in the 20th century, wood bison still show distinct genetic differences from plains bison and strong phenotypic characteristics typical of the subspecies. Today there are free-ranging wood bison in four of five range states within their original range, which includes northwestern Canada and Alaska. A wood bison restoration effort is underway in Alaska, where extensive high quality habitat still exists.
About 500 bison survived the intensive subsistence and commercial exploitation during European settlement of the interior of North America in the 19th century. Survivors included about 200 plains bison in five widely separated private herds and one wild population (Yellowstone National Park), and 250 to 300 wood bison in one region in the northern boreal forest. Fortunately, following the bottleneck of the late 1800s, the surviving bison were located in separate populations that encompassed a high level of overall (pre-bottleneck) genetic variation. Protective legislation prevented extirpation and supported the recovery of the two remaining wild herds. The combined efforts of public and private interests have resulted in a current population of >500,000 bison in North America, distributed from northern Mexico to Alaska.
Although recovery efforts since the early 1900s and production under private ownership have increased bison numbers, a recent assessment of the conservation status of the species revealed that there are some serious challenges to conservation and recovery of bison as a wildlife species (Boyd 2003). The recovery of bison on public lands is limited or affected by a number of factors including several that originally led to its extirpation. Some of the most important pressures include habitat loss from agricultural development and other intensive land use, commercial bison production, reduction in genetic diversity, domestic cattle diseases, introgression of cattle DNA, obstructive and inconsistent legislation, regulations and policies, and the general misconception that the persistence of bison as a wild species is secure.
More than 95% of North American bison are privately owned, most of which are managed for commercial production. Selection for market traits (growth and reproductive performance, body conformation, docility) dominates management of private herds. Natural selection only operates fully in a few public herds. The presence of cattle genes is nearly ubiquitous among commercial herds of plains bison tested to date, a legacy of sustained efforts to create an improved domestic range cow through cross-breeding cattle (Bos taurus) and bison. Many public herds have also shown varying levels of cattle gene introgression. There are a limited number of free-ranging plains bison populations within original range states (one in northern Mexico, two in the contiguous United States of America, and two in Canada).
The status of wood bison in the wild is somewhat better, with 8 free-ranging populations. Although the subspecies was subject to some human caused hybridization with plains bison early in the 20th century, wood bison still show distinct genetic differences from plains bison and strong phenotypic characteristics typical of the subspecies. Today there are free-ranging wood bison in four of five range states within their original range, which includes northwestern Canada and Alaska. A wood bison restoration effort is underway in Alaska, where extensive high quality habitat still exists.
