Features

Biology

• Two forms of bison exist, plains and wood, although the debate continues as to the viability of treating plains bison separately from wood bison in management and status.
• Bison have low fecundity, males usually breeding at age 3 and females calving a single offspring at the age of two.
• The circular migratory behaviour of bison allowed vegetation to recover after herds passed through an area thus maintaining the predominate disturbance patterns of the landscape.
• Bison are grazers, preferring wet meadows in the boreal ecoreigon and grassy areas of the prairies. First nations people played an important role in the maintenance of high quality range areas for bison through the use of fire.
• Bison are the largest terrestrial mammal in North America and may live up to 30 years in the wild.
• As a grazer of sedges and coarse grasses, bison occupy a unique niche among North American herbivores.

Distribution

• Historical population declines were a result of intentional extermination by the US Federal Government to reduce First Nations food supply in the 18th century, over hunting (advertised train shoots were available to trans-continental travelers), habitat fragmentation with the establishment of ranches and farms throughout the great plains, and reduction in habitat supply as a result of fire suppression and dam building.