Scientists have made a fascinating discovery about the bison population in Yellowstone National Park.
Researchers at Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) found that the bison in Yellowstone are made up of a large, interbreeding population derived from multiple historic herds.
Previous research showed there were two unique herds living within the park, but the new study, published in the Journal of Heredity, amended that information, showing that the genetically healthy singular population varies between 4,000 and 6,000 individuals.
Yellowstone is the only place in the United States where bison have lived continuously since the prehistoric age, according to the park's official website. They were hunted to near extinction as European colonizers settled into the western part of the country, with bison being targeted as part of the effort to remove Native American peoples from their land.
By the early 1900s, they were nearly gone, with only 23 wild bison surviving. Conservation efforts began when Yellowstone purchased 21 privately owned bison and began interbreeding them with the wild population, finally reviving the herd to its current level.
"In one of the greatest wildlife conservation success stories of all time, a small number of domestic bison from western Montana and the Texas Panhandle were introduced in 1902 to existing animals in Yellowstone in the hopes that they would create a stable and thriving population in the world's first national park," Dr. James Derr, a professor in the VMBS' Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, said.
The restoration of the bison to healthy levels benefits the ecosystem of Yellowstone thanks to their grazing habits. They eat grasses at different heights, which provides nesting grounds for birds. Meanwhile, their wallows — or areas where bison roll around on the ground and pack down the soil — fill with rainwater and provide breeding grounds for amphibians and a drinking source for wildlife, per the World Wildlife Fund.
Elsewhere, a study of Romanian bison has shown that their grazing behavior helps stimulate plant growth and secure carbon in the soil, potentially capturing 59,000 tons of planet-warming gases. American bison have similar effects on plant growth and cycles in the Great Plains, according to a BBC report.
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