Wood Bison
Canada's largest land mammal, the bison, could possibly have lived here as long as seven hundred thousand years ago. The Wood Bison as a specific subspecies evolved about five thousand years ago, during the time that the Beringia land bridge was visible. This bridge connected North America to eastern Siberia. During and after the last ice age bison continued to thrive in our environment.
Wood Bison are considered
a "threatened" species in Canada.
The Canadian wood bison (Bison bison athabascae) is the closest living
relative to the extinct steppe bison (Bison priscus). Both come from the
taiga region – the northern edge of the boreal coniferous forest,
south of the subarctic tundra regions stretching from Labrador to Alaska
and from Siberia to Scandinavia.
This animalcan distinguish smells from 3 km away. At one time used traditional
migration routes across the prairies that are still visible from the air
as deep, worn paths.
The wood bison population
was estimated at 168,000 animals in 1800. Wood bisons were hunted almost
to extinction during the 19th century. By 1893 the population had declined
to an estimated low of 250 animals. Numbers slowly increased and had reached
1500 to 2000 by 1922. At that time, Wood Buffalo National Park (WBNP)
was established in an attempt to save wood bison from extinction and to
protect its habitat.
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By 1940, it was feared that wood bison had disappeared as a subspecies as a result of interbreeding with plains bison. However, in 1957 federal wildlife officials discovered a herd of pure wood bison in the Nyarling River area of the park. In 1963, 18 animals were captured and released in the Mackenzie Bison Sanctuary. These animals founded the Mackenzie herd, which grew to about 2,400 by 1989 and stabilized at 1900 animals by 1998. The Mackenzie herd is now the world’s largest free-ranging herd of disease-free wood bison.
Historically, wood bison ranged throughout the boreal forest of northern Alberta, northeastern British Columbia, southwestern NWT, the Yukon and central Alaska. Today, the majority of free-roaming wood bison populations are found in the NWT.
Description
Wood bison, northern cousins of the plains bison, are North America's
largest land mammals. They can be recognized by their huge heads, large
shoulder humps and shaggy brown fur on their shoulders and front legs.
Both sexes have short black horns. Females have straight horns while male
horns curve slightly inward. Males are larger than females and can reach
3.8 metres in length and more than 1.8 metres in height. Wood bison are
massive creatures ranging in weight from 550 -1000 kilograms.
In northern areas, the wood bison fed on a wide variety of grasses and
wild forages, but mainly on meadow sedge, an abundant lowland forage,
or food suitable for livestock. In winter, they would also eat the tender
twigs of scrubland bushes.
Biology
Bison are social animals and can be found in small herds throughout the
year. Both males and females become sexually mature around two or three
years of age. Females usually have their first calf at three years of
age but competition prevents males from mating until they are seven to
eight years old. Calves are weaned after seven months. Females usually
have two calves in a three-year period. During the mating season, from
July to mid-September, "bull roarings" are heard for kilometres,
day and night, as bulls challenge each other in the rutting ritual of
the mating season.
The most dangerous
season for wild bison is the spring, with the melting of lake and river
ice. The buffalo habit of bunching tightly together, safe enough on hard
winter ice, often proves fatal in spring conditions, and enormous numbers
died when great herds were common. On one day in 1795, a fur trader counted
7,360 drowned individuals in a tributary of the Red River, west of Winnipeg.
In recent decades large numbers have drowned in the Peace-Athabasca Delta
region of Wood Buffalo National Park.
North American bison are still under threat from other sources. Grizzly
bears, black bears, grey wolves, and cougars have been known to prey on
bison. The grizzly bear was and would still be a deadly enemy, but neither
it nor the formidable cougar are numerous in buffalo territory today.
Wolves are a danger chiefly to the young, the sick, and the old, because
a buffalo in its prime is usually a match for wolves.
Bisons for Russia
In 1997, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) decided to establish a new population
of bison into the territory and approached the Canadian Wood Bison Recovery
Team for assistance. In April 2006, representatives from a number of Canadian
government agencies as well as their counterparts from the Republic of
Sakha (Yakutia) loaded special stock trailers of 30 wood bison, 15 males
and 15 females, onto an Illyushin (IL-76TD), a large cargo plane.
The plane took the bison to their new home at the Lenskie Stolby Nature Park located about 130 kilometres south of Yakutsk, the capital city of the Republic. Two park wardens from Elk Island National Park and an inspector from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency also made the trip to ensure the animals' health and safety.
The 30 wood bison arrived safely and will remain in the captive facility at the park for up to a year while they adapt to their new home. Eventually, a group of up to 24 will be released into a valley of the Orto-Salaa region about 450 kilometres north of Yakutsk while the remaining bison will stay at the park for long-term management and study.
Early reports indicate that the bison are doing well after their 22 hour trip from park to park. They are feeding and drinking water in their new home in Russia and have settled in quite nicely.
BUFFALO OR BISON
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_Bison
SPECIES AT RISK
http://www.speciesatrisk.gc.ca/search/speciesDetails_e.cfm?SpeciesID=143
FACTS ABOUT WOOD BISON
http://www.ec.gc.ca/EnviroZine/english/issues/66/feature2_e.cfm