Yellowstone Park Bison Herd
Encyclopedia
The Yellowstone Park bison herd in Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...

 is probably the oldest and largest public bison herd in the United States of America. Yellowstone is known for its geothermal activity and large mammals, especially Elk
Elk
The Elk is the large deer, also called Cervus canadensis or wapiti, of North America and eastern Asia.Elk may also refer to:Other antlered mammals:...

, Wolves, American Bison
American Bison
The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...

, Bears, Pronghorn Antelope, Moose
Moose
The moose or Eurasian elk is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic configuration...

 and Bighorn Sheep
Bighorn Sheep
The bighorn sheep is a species of sheep in North America named for its large horns. These horns can weigh up to , while the sheep themselves weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates that there are three distinct subspecies of Ovis canadensis, one of which is endangered: Ovis canadensis sierrae...

. The Yellowstone Park Bison Herd is estimated at approximately 3,700 individuals (2011) in two major herds. The Bison in the Yellowstone Park Bison Herd are American Bison, and 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 re-introduced as has been done in most other bison herd areas. Other large free ranging, publicly controlled herds of Bison in the United States include the Wind Cave Bison Herd
Wind Cave Bison Herd
The Wind Cave bison herd is a herd of 250–400 American Bison in Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota, USA. It is believed to be one of only four free roaming and genetically pure herds on public lands in North America. The other three herds are the Yellowstone Park bison herd, the Henry Mountains...

 (approximately 350 animals), the Antelope Island Bison Herd
Antelope Island Bison Herd
Antelope Island in Great Salt Lake, Utah, United States of America is part of Antelope Island State Park. On the island, a semi-free ranging population of "Buffaloes" or American Bison have been in existence since 1893. Though the island was named for the Pronghorn Antelope that John C...

 (approximately (550 to 700 animals), the Henry Mountains Bison Herd
Henry Mountains Bison Herd
The Henry Mountains Bison Herd, numbering 250 to 400 bison, is believed to be one of only four free roaming and genetically pure herds on public lands in North America...

 in Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

 (400 to 500 animals), and the National Bison Range Herd
National Bison Range herd
The National Bison Range herd of American bison at the National Bison Range Wildlife Refuge in Flathead Valley of the U.S. state of Montana is home to about 350-500 of these animals. Other large wildlife found on the Range include elk, white-tail and mule deer, pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep and...

 near Flathead Lake, Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

 (400 animals).

Location

The Northern Range herd which numbers approximately 2300 individuals ranges from the northern entrance near Gardiner, Montana
Gardiner, Montana
Gardiner is a census-designated place in Park County, Montana, United States, along the 45th parallel. The population was 851 at the 2000 census....

 through the Blacktail Plateau and into the Lamar Valley
Lamar River
The Lamar River is a tributary of the Yellowstone River, approximately 40 miles long, in northwestern Wyoming in the United States. The river is located entirely within Yellowstone National Park.-History:...

. The Central Interior herd which numbers approximately 1400 individuals ranges from the Madison River
Madison River
The Madison River is a headwater tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 183 miles long, in Wyoming and Montana. Its confluence with the Jefferson and Gallatin rivers near Three Forks, Montana form the Missouri River....

 valley into the Hayden Valley
Hayden Valley
Hayden Valley is a large, sub-alpine valley in Yellowstone National Park straddling the Yellowstone River between Yellowstone Falls and Yellowstone Lake. The valley floor along the river is an ancient lake bed from a time when Yellowstone Lake was much larger...

 and Upper and Lower Geyser Basins.

History

American Bison once numbered in the millions, perhaps between 25 million and 60 million by some estimates, and they were possibly the most numerous large land animal on earth. However by the late 1880s, they had been hunted to near extinction throughout North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

. It appears that the Yellowstone Park Bison Herd was the last free ranging bison herd in the United States and the only place where were not extirpated in the United States. The Yellowstone Park Bison Herd is descended from a remnant population of 23 individual bison that survived the mass slaughter of the 19th century by hiding out in the Pelican Valley of Yellowstone Park. In 1902, a captive herd of 21 plains bison was introduced to the Lamar Valley and managed as livestock until the 1960s, when a policy of natural regulation was adopted by the park.

Ecology

Yellowstone National Park has large areas of Alpine Meadows
Alpine Meadows
The term Alpine Meadows may refer to:* Alpine Meadows, California, an unincorporated community in California* Alpine Meadows Lodge, outside Golden, British Columbia* Alpine Meadows Ranch, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Darby, Montana...

 and grass prairie
Prairie
Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type...

 and this provides a nearly optimum environment for American Bison.

Bison are large herd animals that defend their young vigorously. American Bison can run up to 35 miles per hour and are surprising agile, in addition to their notable strength and irritable temperament. Significant Apex predators that are found in Yellowstone National Park including American black bear
American black bear
The American black bear is a medium-sized bear native to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most common bear species. Black bears are omnivores, with their diets varying greatly depending on season and location. They typically live in largely forested areas, but do leave forests in...

s, Grizzly Bears and Wolves. Other large mammals found in Yellowstone include Elk
Elk
The Elk is the large deer, also called Cervus canadensis or wapiti, of North America and eastern Asia.Elk may also refer to:Other antlered mammals:...

, Moose
Moose
The moose or Eurasian elk is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic configuration...

, Coyotes, Bobcats, Deer
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...

, Pronghorn Antelope, and Bighorn Sheep
Bighorn Sheep
The bighorn sheep is a species of sheep in North America named for its large horns. These horns can weigh up to , while the sheep themselves weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates that there are three distinct subspecies of Ovis canadensis, one of which is endangered: Ovis canadensis sierrae...

. Wolves and Bears are clearly successful predators of bison, but bison does not comprise the major portion of their diet. Competitive pressure from the other large grazing mammals in Yellowstone Park may also help limit the number of bison in the herd, but this is not considered to have a significant effect on bison numbers. Disease, including various viruses, parasites and brucellosis
Brucellosis
Brucellosis, also called Bang's disease, Crimean fever, Gibraltar fever, Malta fever, Maltese fever, Mediterranean fever, rock fever, or undulant fever, is a highly contagious zoonosis caused by ingestion of unsterilized milk or meat from infected animals or close contact with their secretions...

 have a greater effect on bison population. However, a common cause of death for these bison continues to be hunting by human beings. This occurs when many of the bison leave the park during the winter, heading up into Montana, especially through the Lamar Valley. At such times, the State of Montana has authorized large buffalo hunts, to eliminate the animals, because of concerns about spreading brucellosis to local domestic cattle.

Genetics

The Yellowstone Park Bison Herd is considered to be genetically pure, meaning that there is no evidence of significant hybridization between these bison and cattle.

Officially, the "American Buffalo" 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
American Bison
The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...

 (Species: Bison bison) is not only a separate species, but actually in a separate genus from Domestic cattle (Bos primigenius), they clearly have a lot of genetic compatibility and American Bison can interbreed freely with cattle. Moreover, when they do interbreed, the crossbreeds tend to look very much like purebred Bison, so appearance is completely unreliable as a means of determining what is a purebred bison and what is a crossbred cow. Many ranchers have deliberately cross bred their cattle with bison, and it would also be expected that there could be some natural hybridization 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 the past, and opportunity for cross breeding may sometimes have been common.

In recent decades tests were developed to determine the source of mitochondrial DNA in cattle and bison, and it was found that most private 'buffalo' herds were actually cross bred 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 that contained cattle genes has increased. Though approximately 500,000 bison exist on private ranches and in public herds, some people estimate that perhaps only 15,000 to 25,000 of these bison are pure and are not actually bison-cattle hybrids. "DNA from domestic cattle (Bos taurus) has been detected in nearly all bison herds examined to date." Significant public bison herds that do not appear to have hybridized domestic cattle genes are the Yellowstone Park Bison Herd, the Henry Mountains Bison Herd
Henry Mountains Bison Herd
The Henry Mountains Bison Herd, numbering 250 to 400 bison, is believed to be one of only four free roaming and genetically pure herds on public lands in North America...

 which was started with bison taken from Yellowstone Park, the Wind Cave Bison Herd
Wind Cave Bison Herd
The Wind Cave bison herd is a herd of 250–400 American Bison in Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota, USA. It is believed to be one of only four free roaming and genetically pure herds on public lands in North America. The other three herds are the Yellowstone Park bison herd, the Henry Mountains...

 and the Wood Buffalo National Park Bison Herd and subsidiary herds started from it, in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

.

A landmark study of bison genetics that was performed by James Derr of the 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 doing quite well, despite their apparent genetic bottleneck. One possible explanation for this might be the small amount of domestic cattle genes that are now in most bison populations, though this isn't the only possible explanation for bison success.

In the study cattle genes were also found in small amounts throughout most 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." He also said, "All of 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
Henry Mountains Bison Herd
The Henry Mountains Bison Herd, numbering 250 to 400 bison, is believed to be one of only four free roaming and genetically pure herds on public lands in North America...

 in the Henry Mountains
Henry Mountains
The Henry Mountains are located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Utah and run in a generally north-south direction, extending over a distance of about 30 miles . They were named by John Wesley Powell in honour of Joseph Henry, the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. The...

 of Utah. It is also notable that the Henry Mountain Herd was started initially with transplanted animals from Yellowstone Park. However, the extension of this herd into the Book Cliffs
Book Cliffs
The Book Cliffs are a series of mountains and cliffs in western Colorado and eastern Utah, in the western United States. They are so named because many of them have the triangular appearance of a book that has been opened up, then turned on its sides and set to rest on the open sides of the book,...

 of Central Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

 involved mixing the founders with additional bison from another source, so it is not known if the Book Cliff extension of the herd is also free of cattle hybridization.

So, are the bison in Yellowstone National Park completely free of genes from Domestic Cattle? It would appear so at the current time. However, there are those geneticists that speculate that in the future, as our genetic testing improves, it may be discovered that almost all bison have some genetic inheritance from domestic cattle.

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
Wood Buffalo National Park
Wood Buffalo National Park, located in northeastern Alberta and southern Northwest Territories, is the largest national park in Canada at . The park was established in 1922 to protect the world's largest herd of free roaming Wood Bison, currently estimated at more than 5,000...

 in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and the Yellowstone Park Bison Herd were possibly separate subspecies, and not Plains Bison. Some people had suggested that the Yellowstone Park Bison were actually either of the 'athabascae' (Wood Buffalo) subspecies, or else that they were of an unspecified 'mountain' subspecies. In the study, it was determined that the Wood Buffalo Park bison were actually cross breeds between Plains Bison and Wood Bison, but that their predominant genetic makeup was truly that of the expected "Wood Buffalo" (Bison bison athabascae). However, the Yellowstone Park Bison Herd were pure Plains Bison (Bison bison bison), and not any of the other previously suggested subspecies.

Future

There remain various questions and concerns regarding future management of the Yellowstone Park Bison Herd. Current US National Park Service policy is to let the herd take a natural course, as much as possible, and no definitive attempt is made to control or eliminate disease, most notably brucellosis
Brucellosis
Brucellosis, also called Bang's disease, Crimean fever, Gibraltar fever, Malta fever, Maltese fever, Mediterranean fever, rock fever, or undulant fever, is a highly contagious zoonosis caused by ingestion of unsterilized milk or meat from infected animals or close contact with their secretions...

. This is analogous to the policy of the park service to let natural wildfires burn themselves out, except in areas where they cause a threat to structures or habitation. However, there are many people who advocate a vigorous attempt to eliminate brucellosis
Brucellosis
Brucellosis, also called Bang's disease, Crimean fever, Gibraltar fever, Malta fever, Maltese fever, Mediterranean fever, rock fever, or undulant fever, is a highly contagious zoonosis caused by ingestion of unsterilized milk or meat from infected animals or close contact with their secretions...

 from the herd. This would require rounding all the animals up for vaccination and culling
Culling
Culling is the process of removing animals from a group based on specific criteria. This is done either to reinforce certain desirable characteristics or to remove certain undesirable characteristics from the group...

, or a new form of vaccination would need to be developed that could be applied without capturing all the animals. In addition, even if brucellosis
Brucellosis
Brucellosis, also called Bang's disease, Crimean fever, Gibraltar fever, Malta fever, Maltese fever, Mediterranean fever, rock fever, or undulant fever, is a highly contagious zoonosis caused by ingestion of unsterilized milk or meat from infected animals or close contact with their secretions...

 were eliminated from the herd, there is a question whether the bison herd might become re-infected from other potential natural sources, such as elk.

Hunting is not allowed inside Yellowstone National Park but Bison, Wolves, Elk and other animals that leave the park are not necessarily protected. There continues to be public controversy over the hunting of the animals in Montana when the bison leave the park. Some groups have proposed that all hunting must stop, but that is currently under the control of the State of Montana.

The bison at Yellowstone National Park have become the foundation animals for many other bison herds throughout the United States, such as the Henry Mountains Bison Herd
Henry Mountains Bison Herd
The Henry Mountains Bison Herd, numbering 250 to 400 bison, is believed to be one of only four free roaming and genetically pure herds on public lands in North America...

 and (partially) the Wind Cave Bison Herd
Wind Cave Bison Herd
The Wind Cave bison herd is a herd of 250–400 American Bison in Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota, USA. It is believed to be one of only four free roaming and genetically pure herds on public lands in North America. The other three herds are the Yellowstone Park bison herd, the Henry Mountains...

, and many groups in the United States and Canada are making efforts to return Bison to much of their previous natural range. If there are large tracts of open range and natural habitat that become available for bison, then some private groups have actually purchased these lands and some lands are in the process of being prepared for bison introduction. Currently, some state and national parks have habitat for bison, but most of these already have bison present. In moving bison to new locations, great care should be taken to maintain their genetic diversity, to ensure that valuable genes are not irrevocably lost. Care should also be taken when dealing with any already existing herd, to try to minimize the introduction of domestic cattle genes, which appear to be carried by many bison, into herds where such genes are not currently present.

See also

  • Animals of Yellowstone
    Animals of Yellowstone
    Yellowstone National Park in the northwest United States is home to a large variety of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians, many of which migrate within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. These Animals of Yellowstone, especially larger mammals, birds and fish are a major park...

  • American Bison
    American Bison
    The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...

  • Antelope Island Bison Herd
    Antelope Island Bison Herd
    Antelope Island in Great Salt Lake, Utah, United States of America is part of Antelope Island State Park. On the island, a semi-free ranging population of "Buffaloes" or American Bison have been in existence since 1893. Though the island was named for the Pronghorn Antelope that John C...

  • Henry Mountains Bison Herd
    Henry Mountains Bison Herd
    The Henry Mountains Bison Herd, numbering 250 to 400 bison, is believed to be one of only four free roaming and genetically pure herds on public lands in North America...

  • Wind Cave Bison Herd
    Wind Cave Bison Herd
    The Wind Cave bison herd is a herd of 250–400 American Bison in Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota, USA. It is believed to be one of only four free roaming and genetically pure herds on public lands in North America. The other three herds are the Yellowstone Park bison herd, the Henry Mountains...

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