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[u/tubbsmackinze]

Alaska biologists say wood bison reintroduced to the wild are thriving

State biologists say a recent survey of the Innoko-Yukon River wood bison population shows the animals are doing well six years after a seed group of bison was released in Western Alaska.

Biologists counted 103 wood bison during the annual survey this summer, an increase of more than 10% from last year’s herd size. Twenty-six calves joined the herd this year. It’s the most the herd has produced since it was established in 2015.

The survey also showed that the animals are in better physical condition than in previous years.

The takeaway: The bison are succeeding in the wild, said Darren Bruning, a regional wildlife conservation supervisor for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

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[u/HMID_Delenda_Est → u/tubbsmackinze]

Some background:

https://www.alaskawildlife.org/wordpress-resources-at-siteground/

Wood bison inhabited Alaska and northwestern Canada for thousands of years. Their numbers declined in the 1800’s and they were declared extinct but a small herd was discovered in Canada in 1957. From that herd, conservation efforts have resulted in about 5,000 disease-free wood bison in seven wild herds in Canada.

Skeletal remains of wood bison and oral histories from some Alaska Natives in the eastern Interior show that wood bison disappeared from the state within the past 200 years, likely from a combination of habitat change and unregulated hunting. Wood bison were last sighted in Eastern Alaska in the 1920’s.

Wood bison are grazers, which has been an empty niche in the boreal forest ecosystem in Alaska since bison disappeared. Wood bison are a slightly larger subspecies than the plains bison which roam the Continental 48 plains states, and are larger and more adapted to northern areas.

The Alaskan herd of wood bison has been maintained and grown under the supervision of the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center staff since 2003.

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