Green Light for Bison Reintroductions Around the World

Just days after seven European bison, or wisent (Bison bonasus), cows born and raised at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland's Highland Wildlife Park were soft released into the Vanatori Neamt Nature Park in Romania, the United States moved forward on it own plans to reintroduce an endangered bison population into part of the subspecies' historic range.

Although the wisent was listed as endangered back in 1996, it has since been downgraded to vulnerable by the IUCN with approximately 3,000 animals free ranging in the wild. Several successful reintroductions of wisent have already occurred in other European countries and "American" wood bison (Bison bison athabascae) have been introduced outside of North America.

According to Alaska's Daily News-Miner (Fairbanks), "If all goes according to plan, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game could release wood bison in the lower Innoko River in Southwest Alaska as early as next spring, Doug Vincent-Lang, director of the Division of Wildlife Conservation, said on Tuesday." This is because the USFWS just announced that it will publish the 10j rule that designates the wood bison herd a "non-essential experimental population," which in essence makes the animals exempt from the Endangered Species Act. This designation "gives the state primary management authority of the animals."

With this news the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage, Alaska learned that they can essentially move forward in making plans to fly out members of their 130 plus member captive herd of wood bison in the relatively near future. The U.S. wood bison reintroduction program has been a joint effort between the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the 200 acre game animal sanctuary the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. Several political hurdles have extended the effort over a decade, but the news is no less exciting for the managers of the only sustainable captive herd of wood bison in the United States.

The "American" wood bison, a subspecies or sometimes considered an ecotype of the American bison (Bison bison spp.), was extirpated in the United States and once deemed functionally extinct in America. With this announcement, however, the wood bison should be restored to its ancient range outside of Canada where it has continued to persist in the wild.

Wood bison are the largest land mammals in North America and, in fact, the Western Hemisphere -- just as the slightly smaller wisent are the largest terrestrial mammals in Europe. Unlike the European bison, which was actually rendered globally extinct due to hunting and habitat loss, the wood bison, as mentioned, has survived in the Canadian portion of its historic range. American bison are more docile (i.e. easier to tame) and easier to outbreed with domestic bovids.

There are 7,000 free ranging wood bison in Canada, although hybridization with the nominate subspecies, the plains bison (Bison bison bison) of the lower 48, has been demonstrated in some populations. This conservation effort for wood bison will not only increase the genetic diversity of the global population of the subspecies, but it will increase their numbers in the wild.

Photo by Doug Lindstrand (Portage, Alaska)

For my inaugural coverage of the US Wood Bison Reintroduction program, which I was a part of during my tenure at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, please visit this Nat Geo link.