98-519: B. b. athabascae (wood bison) B. b. bison (plains bison) The American bison ( Bison bison ; pl. : bison ), commonly known as the American buffalo , or simply buffalo (not to be confused with true buffalo ), is a species of bison that is endemic (or native) to North America . It is one of two extant species of bison, along with the European bison . Its historical range circa 9000 BC
196-427: A barrier between the bison and their food source, so they must use their large heads and neck muscles to dig for edible morsels. After the temperature rises and the snow melts, wood bison also feed on silverberry and willow leaves in the summer. Researchers believe wood bison are beneficiaries of a natural law known as Bergmann's rule due to their sheer size. Their increased body mass over their southern cousin,
294-477: 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. 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
392-516: A code of ethics which prohibits its members from deliberately crossbreeding bison with any other species. Population estimates in 2010 ranged from 400,000 to 500,000, with approximately 20,500 animals in 62 conservation herds and the remainder in approximately 6,400 commercial herds. According to the IUCN , roughly 15,000 bison are considered wild, free-range bison not primarily confined by fencing. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has reintroduced bison to over
490-538: A dozen nature preserves around the United States. In October 2016, TNC established its easternmost bison herd in the country, at Kankakee Sands nature preserve in Morocco , Newton County, Indiana . In 2014, U.S. Tribes and Canadian First Nations signed a treaty to help with the restoration of bison, the first to be signed in nearly 150 years. American bison live in river valleys, and on prairies and plains. Typical habitat
588-474: A few older males. During the breeding season, dominant bulls maintain a small harem of females for mating. Individual bulls "tend" cows until allowed to mate, by following them around and chasing away rival males. The tending bull shields the female's vision with his body so she will not see any other challenging males. A challenging bull may bellow or roar to get a female's attention, and the tending bull has to bellow or roar back. The most dominant bulls mate in
686-431: A new location to graze again. Sexually mature young bulls may try to start mating with cows by the age of two or three years, but if more mature bulls are present, they may not be able to compete until they reach five years of age. For the first two months of life, calves are lighter in color than mature bison. One extremely rare condition is the white buffalo , in which the calf turns entirely white. Bison are members of
784-510: A number of physical and behavioral differences. Adult American bison are slightly heavier on average because of their less rangy build and have shorter legs, which render them slightly shorter at the shoulder. American bison tend to graze more and browse less than their European relatives because their necks are set differently. Compared to the nose of the American bison, that of the European species
882-531: A practice of pleistocene rewilding ; wood bison are the most similar to the extinct steppe bison species ( Bison priscus ). The bison are adapting well to the cold climate, and Yakutia's Red List officially registered the species in 2019; a second herd was formed in 2020. In Pleistocene Park , there are also 24 plains bison as wood bison could not be acquired. Bison are migratory and herd migrations can be directional as well as altitudinal in some areas. Bison have usual daily movements between foraging sites during
980-415: A predation episode varies, ranging from a few minutes to over nine hours. Bison display five apparent defense strategies in protecting calves from wolves: running to a cow; running to a herd; running to the nearest bull; running in the front or center of a stampeding herd; entering water bodies, such as lakes or rivers. When fleeing wolves in open areas, cows with young calves take the lead, while bulls take to
1078-486: A remote area to form the second herd. Pleistocene Park in Yakutia originally wanted to bring wood bison into its enclosures, but failed to do so and brought in European bison instead. Bubal hartebeest The bubal hartebeest , also known as northern hartebeest or bubal antelope or simply bubal ( Alcelaphus buselaphus buselaphus ) is the extinct nominal (i.e., first described) subspecies of hartebeest . It
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#17328512967081176-457: 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
1274-566: A single generic word covering both sexes. Thus: Such a distinction is not a general feature of the language (for example, Arapaho possesses gender-neutral terms for other large mammals such as elk, mule deer, etc.), and so presumably is due to the special significance of the bison in Plains Indian life and culture. A bison has a shaggy, long, dark-brown winter coat, and a lighter-weight, lighter-brown summer coat. Male bison are significantly larger and heavier than females. Plains bison are often in
1372-628: A threat to calves and sometimes old, injured, or sick adult bison, direct killing of non-calves is rare even when targeting lone and injured young individuals; attacking healthy bison is risky for bears, who can be killed instead. Bison are among the most dangerous animals encountered by visitors to the various North American national parks and will attack humans if provoked. They appear slow because of their lethargic movements but can easily outrun humans; bison have been observed running as fast as 65 to 70 km/h (40 to 45 mph). Bison may approach people for curiosity. Close encounters, including to touch
1470-728: Is a possibility that there are surviving pure wood bison. 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
1568-451: Is classified by the United States government as a type of cattle, and the government allows private herds to be managed as such. This is a reflection of the characteristics that bison share with cattle. Though the American bison is a separate species and usually regarded as being in a separate genus from domestic cattle ( Bos taurus ), they have a lot of genetic compatibility with cattle. American bison can interbreed with cattle, although only
1666-401: Is completely unreliable as a means of determining what is a purebred bison and what is a crossbred cow. Many ranchers have deliberately crossbred their cattle with bison, and some natural hybridization could be expected in areas where cattle and bison occur in the same range. Since cattle and bison eat similar food and tolerate similar conditions, they have often been in the same range together in
1764-497: Is considered to be a misnomer for this animal, as it is only distantly related to either of the two "true buffalo", the 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
1862-706: Is not known if the Book Cliffs extension of the herd is also free of cattle hybridization. A separate study by Wilson and Strobeck, published in Genome , was done to define the relationships between different herds of bison in the United States and Canada, and to determine whether the bison at Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada and the Yellowstone Park bison herd were possibly separate subspecies. The Wood Buffalo Park bison were determined to actually be crossbreeds between plains and wood bison, but their predominant genetic makeup
1960-582: Is one of the largest wild species of extant bovid in the world, surpassed only by the Asian gaur . Among extant land animals in North America, the bison is the heaviest and the longest, and the second tallest after the moose . Once roaming in vast herds , the species nearly became extinct by a combination of commercial hunting and slaughter in the 19th century and introduction of bovine diseases from domestic cattle. With an estimated population of 60 million in
2058-475: Is open or semiopen grasslands, as well as sagebrush, semiarid lands, and scrublands. Some lightly wooded areas are also known historically to have supported bison. Bison also graze in hilly or mountainous areas where the slopes are not steep. Though not particularly known as high-altitude animals, bison in the Yellowstone Park bison herd are frequently found at elevations above 2,400 m (8,000 ft), and
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#17328512967082156-738: 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 (nearly to the Atlantic tidewater in some areas), 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. Two subspecies or ecotypes have been described:
2254-461: Is set farther forward than the forehead when the neck is in a neutral position. The body of the American bison is hairier, though its tail has less hair than that of the European bison. The horns of the European bison point forward through the plane of its face, making it more adept at fighting through the interlocking of horns in the same manner as domestic cattle, unlike the American bison, which favors charging. American bison are more easily tamed than
2352-564: Is suggested to be the result of either incomplete lineage sorting or ancient introgression . Bison first appeared in Asia during the Early Pleistocene , around 2.6 million years ago. Bison only arrived in North America 195,000 to 135,000 years ago, during the late Middle Pleistocene , descending from the widespread Siberian steppe bison ( Bison priscus ), which had migrated through Beringia . Following their first appearance in North America,
2450-471: Is the national mammal of the United States . In American English, both buffalo and bison are considered correct terms for the American bison. However, in British English, the word buffalo is reserved for the African buffalo and water buffalo and not used for the bison. In English usage, the term buffalo was used to refer to the American mammal as early as 1625. The word bison was applied in
2548-464: Is unclear whether today's animals preserve the original phenotypes existing prior to the 1920s. 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, making it morphologically more similar to at least one of
2646-772: The Cumberland Gap through the Blue Ridge Mountains to upper Kentucky . A heavily used trace crossed the Ohio River at the Falls of the Ohio and ran west, crossing the Wabash River near Vincennes, Indiana . In Senator Thomas Hart Benton 's phrase saluting these sagacious path-makers, the bison paved the way for the railroads to the Pacific. The southern extent of the historic range of
2744-852: The Henry Mountains bison herd is found on the plains around the Henry Mountains , Utah, as well as in mountain valleys of the Henry Mountains to an altitude of 3,000 m (10,000 ft). Reintroduced plains bison in Banff National Park have been observed to roam mountainous areas, including high ridges and steep drainages, and archaeological finds indicate that some bison historically may have spent their lives within mountains while others may have migrated in and out of mountains. Those in Yukon, Canada, typically summer in alpine plateaus above treeline. The first thoroughfares of North America, except for
2842-634: The Iron Age , but Francis Harper (1945) found only "none too well substantiated" recent historical records from Palestine and Arabia . The northern limit of the bubal hartebeest's range was the Mediterranean coast; large herds were still reported existing in Morocco north of the Atlas Mountains in 1738. As for the southern limits of its distribution, "wild oxen ( Antilope bubalis )" were mentioned living in
2940-666: The Janos Biosphere Reserve in northern Chihuahua adding to the Mexican bison population. In 2020, the second herd was formed in Maderas del Carmen . A private reserve named Jagüey de Ferniza has kept bisons since before the above-mentioned reintroductions in Coahuila. Since 2006, an outherd of wood bison sent from Alberta's Elk Island National Park was established in Yakutia , Russia as
3038-522: The Tassili mountains of the central Sahara in 1850. However, the identity of the latter animals is debatable. Even if they were indeed hartebeest, they might not belong to the northern subspecies. The subspecies declined sharply during the course of the 19th century, especially after the French conquest of Algeria , when entire herds were massacred at once by the colonial military. By 1867 it could only be found in
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3136-417: 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. The herd currently has a total population around 2,500, largely as a result of conservation efforts by Canadian government agencies. In 1988,
3234-408: The plains bison ( B. b. bison ), smaller and with a more rounded hump; and the wood bison ( B. b. athabascae ), the larger of the two and having a taller, square hump. Furthermore, the plains bison has been suggested to consist of a northern plains ( B. b. montanae ) and a southern plains ( B. b. bison ) subspecies, bringing the total to three. However, this is generally not supported. The wood bison
3332-403: 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
3430-577: The 1690s. Buffalo was applied to the American bison by Samuel de Champlain as the French word buffles in 1616 (published 1619), after seeing skins and a drawing. These were shown to him by members of the Nipissing First Nation , who said they traveled forty days (from east of Lake Huron) to trade with another nation who hunted the animals. Buffel in turn comes from Portuguese bufalo (water buffalo), which comes from Latin bufalus (an antelope, gazelle, or wild ox), from Greek boubalos . From
3528-585: The 1870s, which caused the plains bison population to undergo a population bottleneck . The bottleneck resulted in a founding population of around 100 individuals, split into six herds, five of which were managed by private ranchers and one managed by the New York Zoological Park (now the Bronx Zoo ). Additionally, a wild herd consisting of 25 individuals in Yellowstone National Park survived
3626-630: 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. Natural hybridization between wood and plains bison presumably occurred for a limited extent in the regions where the two ecotypes (or subspecies) overlapped. Wood–plains hybrids are generally called "Parkland bison". 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
3724-438: The 2020 Bison Conservation Initiative on May 7, 2020. This initiative focuses on maintaining the genetic diversity of the metapopulation rather than individual herds. Small populations of bison are at considerably larger risk due to their decreased gene pool and are susceptible to catastrophic events more so than larger herds. The 2020 Bison Conservation Initiative aims to translocate up to three bison every five to ten years between
3822-477: The American bison includes northern Mexico and adjoining areas in the United States as documented by archeological records and historical accounts from Mexican archives from 700 CE to the 19th century. The Janos-Hidalgo bison herd has ranged between Chihuahua, Mexico, and New Mexico, United States, since at least the 1920s. The persistence of this herd suggests that habitat for bison is suitable in northern Mexico. In 2009, genetically pure bison were reintroduced to
3920-658: The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada changed the subspecies' conservation status from "endangered" to " threatened ", where it remains. 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 . There they were to be held in quarantine for two years and then reintroduced to their native habitat in
4018-532: The Department of the Interior's herds. Specific smaller herds will require a more intense management plan. Translocated bison will also be screened for any health defects such as infection of brucellosis bacteria as to not put the larger herd at risk. Bison went from numbering an estimated 60 million individuals before the 1870s to becoming nearly extinct in the 1880s. This was due to the mass slaughtering of bison during
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4116-603: The European and breed more readily with domestic cattle. During the population bottleneck, after the great slaughter of American bison during the 19th century, the number of bison remaining alive in North America declined to as low as 541. During that period, a handful of ranchers gathered remnants of the existing herds to save the species from extinction. These ranchers bred some of the bison with cattle in an effort to produce "cattalo" or " beefalo ". Accidental crossings were also known to occur. Generally, male domestic bulls were crossed with bison cows, producing offspring of which only
4214-651: The Minto Flats area near Fairbanks , but this plan was placed on hold. 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. Currently, about 7,000 wood bison remain in wildernesses within
4312-505: The Northwest Territories, the Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba . Recently, several bison herds that are disease-free, and genetically unique compared to the populations within Wood Buffalo National Park (WBNP), have been detected. 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
4410-676: The Yellowstone Park bison herd, the Henry Mountains bison herd, which was started with bison taken from Yellowstone Park, the Wind Cave bison herd, and the Wood Buffalo National Park bison herd and subsidiary herds started from it, in Canada. A landmark study of bison genetics performed by James Derr of Texas A&M University corroborated this. The Derr study was undertaken in an attempt to determine what genetic problems bison might face as they repopulate former areas, and it noted that bison seem to be adapting successfully, despite their apparent genetic bottleneck. One possible explanation for this might be
4508-479: The animals, can be dangerous, and gunshots do not startle them. Between 1980 and 1999, more than three times as many people in Yellowstone National Park were injured by bison than by bears. During this period, bison charged and injured 79 people, with injuries ranging from goring puncture wounds and broken bones to bruises and abrasions. Bears injured 24 people during the same time. Three people died from
4606-399: The bison rapidly differentiated into new species , such as the largest of all bison, the long-horned Bison latifrons , along with Bison antiquus . The first appearance of bison in North America is considered to define the regional Rancholabrean faunal stage, due to its major impact on the ecology of the continent. Modern American bison are thought to have evolved from B. antiquus at
4704-468: The bottleneck. Wood bison The wood bison ( Bison bison athabascae ) or mountain bison (often called the wood buffalo or mountain buffalo ), 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 . The term "buffalo"
4802-618: The bubal hartebeest preferred rocky areas with a fair amount of vegetation, in contrast to the sandy, drier habitat of the Addax . Its main predator was the Barbary lion , which is now extinct in the wild. The bubal hartebeest ranged originally across Africa north of the Sahara, from Morocco to Egypt , where it disappeared earlier. It was also present with certainty in the Southern Levant prior to
4900-417: The bubal hartebeest was bubalus ( Latin ) or boubalos ( Greek ), from which the term buffalo is derived. Authors that describe the wild bubali of north Africa include Herodotus , Dio Cassius , Strabo , Polybius , Diodorus Siculus and Oppian . The bubal hartebeest was described as uniformly sand colored, save for "an ill-defined patch of greyish on each side of the muzzle above the nostrils", and
4998-523: The case of males, it is unlikely to be related to dominance , but rather to social bonding or gaining sexual experience. Bison mate in late spring and summer in more open plain areas. During fall and winter, bison tend to gather in more wooded areas. During this time, bison partake in horning behaviors. They rub their horns against trees, young saplings, and even utility poles. Aromatic trees like cedars and pine seem to be preferred. Horning appears to be associated with insect defense, as it occurs most often in
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#17328512967085096-641: The chronological subspecies of ancestral steppe bisons ( Bison priscus sp.) and Bison occidentalis . It is among the largest extant bovids 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. Plains bison are capable of running faster, reaching up to 65 km/h (40 mph), and longer than bison living in
5194-412: The cold. When food becomes more scarce in the winter, wood bison are also capable of slowing down their metabolic rate. 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
5292-628: The end of the Late Pleistocene - beginning of the Holocene , with likely intermediates between the species referred to as Bison "occidentalis" . The North American bison population experienced demographic stability during the Middle Holocene but began a slow decline in the Late Holocene beginning about 2,700 BP. Although they are superficially similar, the American and European bison exhibit
5390-593: The end of their first year. At three years of age, bison cows are mature enough to produce a calf. The birthing period for bison in boreal biomes is protracted compared to that of other northern ungulates, such as moose and caribou. Bison have a life expectancy around 15 years in the wild and up to 25 years in captivity. However, males and females from a hunted population also subject to wolf predation in northern Canada have been reported to live to 22 and 25 years of age, respectively. Bison have been observed to display homosexual behaviors , males much more so than females. In
5488-526: The extremely small sizes of other herds, and the herd became protected under a unique designation. 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. Along with the Ronald Lake herd, the much smaller Wabasca herd has also become a subject of special protection. The reintroductions of muskoxen and
5586-1216: The fall when the insect population is at its highest. Cedar and pines emit an aroma after bison horn them and this seems to be used as a deterrent for insects. A bison wallow is a shallow depression in the soil, which bison use either wet or dry. Bison roll in these depressions, covering themselves with dust or mud. Past and current hypotheses to explain the purpose of wallowing include grooming associated with shedding, male-male interaction (typically rutting ), social behavior for group cohesion, play, relief from skin irritation due to biting insects, reduction of ectoparasite ( tick and lice ) load, and thermoregulation . Bison wallowing has important ecosystem engineering effects and enhances plant and animal diversity on prairies. While often secure from predation because of their size and strength, in some areas, vulnerable individuals are regularly preyed upon by wolves . Wolf predation typically peaks in late winter, when elk migrates south and bison are distressed with heavy snows and shortages of food sources, with attacks usually being concentrated on weakened and injured cows and calves. Wolves more actively target herds with calves than those without. The length of
5684-471: The female offspring are fertile in the first generation. These female hybrids can be bred back to either bison or domestic bulls, resulting in either 1/4 or 3/4 bison young. Female offspring from this cross are also fertile, but males are not reliably fertile unless they are either 7 ⁄ 8 bison or 7 ⁄ 8 domestic. Moreover, when they do interbreed, crossbreed animals in the first generation tend to look very much like purebred bison, so appearance
5782-507: The females were fertile. The crossbred animals did not demonstrate any form of hybrid vigor , so the practice was abandoned. The proportion of cattle DNA that has been measured in introgressed individuals and bison herds today is typically quite low, ranging from 0.56 to 1.8%. In the United States , many ranchers are now using DNA testing to cull the residual cattle genetics from their bison herds. The U.S. National Bison Association has adopted
5880-497: The first 2–3 weeks of the season. More subordinate bulls mate with any remaining estrous cow that has not mated yet. Male bison play no part in raising the young. Bison herds have dominance hierarchies that exist for both males and females. A bison's dominance is related to its birth date. Bison born earlier in the breeding season are more likely to be larger and more dominant as adults. Thus, bison are able to pass on their dominance to their offspring as dominant bison breed earlier in
5978-469: The forests and mountains. Wood bison reach sexual maturity at age 2. Females will often rear their first calf by age 3 and may produce a single additional offspring every 1–2 years. 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
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#17328512967086076-403: The former was limited after the rediscovery of a relatively pure herd. Elk Island National Park, which has wild populations of both wood and plains bison, has recorded maximum weights for bull bison of 1186 kg (plains) and 1099 kg (wood), but noted that 3/4 of all bison over 1000 kg were wood bison. When raised in captivity and farmed for meat, the bison can grow unnaturally heavy and
6174-535: The genetic stock , the phenotype, and health condition. 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, despite protests from conservation biologists. The translocation was regarded as a severe tragedy because all
6272-407: The herds, the Ronald Lake herd, is a separated population. This, and genetic 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
6370-413: The injuries inflicted—one person by bison in 1983, and two people by bears in 1984 and 1986. A major problem that bison face today is a lack of genetic diversity due to the population bottleneck the species experienced during its near-extinction event. Another genetic issue is the entry of genes from domestic cattle into the bison population, through hybridization. Officially, the "American buffalo"
6468-480: The introduction of wood bison into Yakutia , Russia, were first proposed by zoologists P. B. Yurgenson in 1961 and O. V. Egorov in 1963. 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, 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
6566-444: 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. The diseases represent a serious management issue for governments, various local indigenous groups , and
6664-526: The largest semidomestic bison weighed 1,724 kg (3,801 lb). The heads and forequarters are massive, and both sexes have short, curved horns that can grow up to 60 cm (2 ft) long with 90 cm (3 ft) to 124 cm (4 ft) width, which they use in fighting for status within the herd and for defense. Bison are herbivores , grazing on the grasses and sedges of the North American prairies . Their daily schedule involves two-hour periods of grazing, resting, and cud chewing, then moving to
6762-483: The late 18th century, the species was culled down to just 541 animals by 1889 as part of the subjugation of the Native Americans, because the American bison was a major resource for their traditional way of life (food source, hides for clothing and shelter, and horns and bones for tools). Recovery efforts expanded in the mid-20th century, with a resurgence to roughly 31,000 wild bison as of March 2019. For many years,
6860-414: The local forage. 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 . 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
6958-402: The lowest weights probably representing typical weight around the age of sexual maturity at 2 to 3 years of age. The heaviest wild bull for B.b.bison ever recorded weighed 1,270 kg (2,800 lb) while there had been bulls estimated to be 1,400 kg (3,000 lb). B.b.athabascae is significantly larger and heavier on average than B.b.bison while the number of recorded samples for
7056-707: The mountain ranges of north-western Africa that are near or within the Saharian desert. It disappeared from the Tunisian Atlas in 1870, and the last animal in this country was shot in 1902 near Tataouine . Outside of this instance, the bubal seems to have entered the 20th century restricted to the Western Atlas, from Boulemane in Morocco to the south of the Wahran department in Algeria . The last known herd, numbering only 15 animals,
7154-471: The only bubal preserved in the United States of America . Remains of bubal hartebeests have been found in several Egyptian archaeological sites such as Abadiyeh , Saqqara and Karanis , the last one dating to the early Middle Ages . A hieroglyph meaning " baby hartebeest " also existed: For these reasons, it has been suggested that the bubal was domesticated in Ancient Egypt , or at least used as
7252-809: The past, and opportunity for crossbreeding may sometimes have been common. In recent decades, tests were developed to determine the source of mitochondrial DNA in cattle and bison, and most private "buffalo" herds were actually crossbred with cattle, and even most state and federal buffalo herds had some cattle DNA. With the advent of nuclear microsatellite DNA testing, the number of herds known to contain cattle genes has increased. As of 2011, though about 500,000 bison existed on private ranches and in public herds, perhaps only 15,000 to 25,000 of these bison were pure and not actually bison-cattle hybrids. DNA from domestic cattle ( Bos taurus ) has been found in almost all examined bison herds. Significant public bison herds that do not appear to have hybridized domestic cattle genes are
7350-450: The population was primarily found in a few national parks and reserves. Through multiple reintroductions , the species now freely roams wild in several regions in the United States , Canada and Mexico . The American bison has also been introduced to Yakutia in Russia . Spanning back millennia , Native American tribes have had cultural and spiritual connections to the American bison. It
7448-422: The rear of the herds to guard the cows' escape. Bison typically ignore wolves not displaying hunting behavior. Wolf packs specializing in bison tend to have more males because their larger size than females allows them to wrestle prey to the ground more effectively. Healthy, mature bulls in herds rarely fall prey. Grizzly bears are known to feed on carcass and may steal wolves' kills. While grizzlies can also pose
7546-415: The remnant wood bisons were thought to be hybridized with the larger numbers of plains bisons. However, in 1957 a relatively pure herd of about 200 was discovered in an isolated part of Wood Buffalo National Park, 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. Thus
7644-480: The same Greek word boubalos we also get the Bubal hartebeest . Bison was borrowed from French bison in the early 17th century, from Latin bison ( aurochs ), from a Proto-Germanic word similar to wisent and, per Etymonline, first applied to American buffalo in the 1690s. In Plains Indian languages in general, male and female bison are distinguished, with each having a different designation rather than there being
7742-454: The season. In addition to dominance, the older bison of a generation also have a higher fertility rate than the younger ones. Bison mate in August and September; gestation is 285 days. A single reddish-brown calf nurses until the next calf is born. If the cow is not pregnant, a calf will nurse for 18 months. Cows nurse their calves for at least 7 or 8 months, but most calves seem to be weaned before
7840-527: The skills required to evade predators, such as running and kicking, on the same day they are born. 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. 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
7938-487: The small amount of domestic cattle genes that are now in most bison populations, though this is not the only possible explanation for bison success. In the study, cattle genes were also found in small amounts throughout most national, state, and private herds. "The hybridization experiments conducted by some of the owners of the five foundation herds of the late 1800s, have left a legacy of a small amount of cattle genetics in many of our existing bison herds," said Derr. "All of
8036-534: The small size of only 12 individuals in the founder population. A side finding of this was that the Antelope Island bison herd appears to be most closely related to the Wood Buffalo National Park bison herd, though the Antelope Island bison are actually plains bison. In order to bolster the genetic diversity of the American bison, the National Park Service alongside the Department of the Interior announced
8134-840: The smaller range of sizes, and wood bison in the larger range. Head-rump lengths at maximum up to 3.5 m (11 ft 6 in) for males and 2.85 m (9 ft 4 in) for females long and the tail adding 30 to 95 cm (1 ft 0 in to 3 ft 1 in). Heights at withers in the species can reach up to 186 to 201 cm (6 ft 1 in to 6 ft 7 in) for B. b. bison and B. b. athabascae respectively. Typically weights can range from 318 to 1,179 kg (701 to 2,599 lb), 460 to 988 kg (1,014 to 2,178 lb) with medians of 730 to 792.5 kg (1,609 to 1,747 lb) ( B.b. bison ) and 943.6 kg (2,080 lb) ( B.b.athabascae ) in males, and 360 to 640 kg (790 to 1,410 lb) with medians of 450 to 497.6 kg (992 to 1,097 lb) in females, although
8232-508: The start of the 20th century, although Ruxton and Schwarz (1929) failed to find any preserved in museums of these countries. The last captive bubal, a female (sometimes wrongly reported as the last bubal ever), died in Paris in 1923. The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia received another female in 1905 from the Zoological Society of Philadelphia , which was stuffed. This is possibly
8330-561: The state owned bison herds tested (except for possibly one) contain animals with domestic cattle mtDNA." It appears that the one state herd that had no cattle genes was the Henry Mountains bison herd; the Henry Mountain herd was started initially with transplanted animals from Yellowstone Park. However, the extension of this herd into the Book Cliffs of central Utah involved mixing the founders with additional bison from another source, so it
8428-717: The summer. In the Hayden Valley, Wyoming, bison have been recorded traveling, on average, 3 km (2 mi) per day. The summer ranges of bison appear to be influenced by seasonal vegetation changes, interspersion and size of foraging sites, the rut , and the number of biting insects. The size of preserve and availability of water may also be a factor. Bison are largely grazers, eating primarily grasses and sedges. On shortgrass pasture, bison predominately consume warm-season grasses. On mixed prairie, cool-season grasses, including some sedges, apparently compose 79–96% of their diet. In montane and northern areas, sedges are selected throughout
8526-582: The terminal tuft of the tail, which was black. In this case the subspecies was similar to the plain colored Lelwel hartebeest , lacking white or black facial markings such as those present in the Western and Swayne's hartebeest . It measured 43 inches at the shoulder and the horns were U-shaped when seen from the front. Like other hartebeests, the bubal was a social animal. Luis del Mármol Carvajal wrote in 1573 that herds of 100 to 200 animals could be found in northern Morocco . According to 19th century writers,
8624-557: The time in this area, he also mentioned that different campaigns in the 1920s and 1930s failed to find any animals in Morocco, Algeria or Tunisia, even in regions where it had been reported as numerous only a few decades before. The bubal hartebeest was protected under the London Convention of 1933. Individuals of bubal hartebeest were sometimes captured and kept in British , French , Italian and German private and public zoos around
8722-684: The time-obliterated paths of mastodon or muskox and the routes of the mound builders , were the traces made by bison and deer in seasonal migration and between feeding grounds and salt licks . Many of these routes, hammered by countless hoofs instinctively following watersheds and the crests of ridges in avoidance of lower places' summer muck and winter snowdrifts, were followed by the aboriginal North Americans as courses to hunting grounds and as warriors' paths. They were invaluable to explorers and were adopted by pioneers . Bison traces were characteristically north and south, but several key east–west trails were used later as railways. Some of these include
8820-491: The total to over 120. A team of Russian and Korean scientists proposed a potential de-extinction of the steppe bison with wood bison in Siberia using cloning techniques. 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. In 2020, 10 juveniles were translocated into
8918-445: The tribe Bovini . Genetic evidence from nuclear DNA indicates that the closest living relatives of bison are yaks , with bison being nested within the genus Bos , rendering Bos without including bison paraphyletic . While nuclear DNA indicates that the two living bison species are each other's closest living relatives, the mitochondrial DNA of European bison is more closely related to that of domestic cattle and aurochs , which
9016-502: 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. 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. Wood bison populations have been susceptible to hybridization with illness-infected plains bison, thereby polluting
9114-606: The wood bison in the Wood Buffalo National Park are considered hybrid descendants. 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
9212-438: The year. Bison also drink water or consume snow on a daily basis. Female bison live in maternal herds which include other females and their offspring. Male offspring leave their maternal herd when around three years old and either live alone or join other males in bachelor herds. Male and female herds usually do not mingle until the breeding season, which can occur from July through September. However, female herds may also contain
9310-444: Was first recorded in 1774. The "eastern bison" ( B. b. pennsylvanicus ) from the eastern United States, a junior synonym of B. b. bison had been called "wood(s) bison" or "woodland bison", not referring to B. b. athabascae . 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 . It
9408-464: Was formerly found north of the Saharan Desert . Other subspecies live currently in grasslands south of the Sahara, from Senegal in the west to Eritrea and Ethiopia in the east and down to central Tanzania . The red hartebeest and Lichtenstein's hartebeest , alternatively considered subspecies or sister species of the common hartebeest, are present in southern Africa . The ancient name for
9506-583: Was located near Outat El Haj , Morocco in 1917; all but 3 of them were killed by the same hunter. The last animal in Morocco was shot in Missour in 1925. It probably disappeared around the same time in Algeria. One last specimen is mentioned as having been collected in the 1920s near Geryville, south of the Chott Ech Chergui . While Harper, writing in 1945, considered that the subspecies could still possibly exist at
9604-456: Was that of the expected "wood buffalo". However, the Yellowstone Park bison herd was pure plains bison, and not any of the other previously suggested subspecies. Another finding was that the bison in the Antelope Island herd in Utah appeared to be more distantly related to other plains bison in general than any other plains bison group that was tested, though this might be due to genetic drift caused by
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