Bison Conservation

While Wood bison are primarily native to areas of Canada and Alaska, our focus at Buffalo Ridge Farm is this subspecies. A majority of bison ranches across the US have a primary Plains or mix of Plains/Woods bison for herd population. Because we are a smaller ranch and can maintain fewer animals, we chose to focus on the Woods for a few reasons:

1. Jo prefers the look and behavior of the Woods bison, and;

2. While the bison population as a whole has been recovering in large part due to private efforts to reestablish the species, the majority of those bison are Plains subspecies. Woods bison are still fewer numbers.

   
   
   
   

Wood bison generally move between seasonal ranges within a home range. The size of the year-round range tends to increase with population size, and also depends on habitat quality. In lower quality habitats they will move over a larger home range. Wood bison move each day from meadow to meadow, where they graze and rest before moving on. Although bison move slowly when feeding, they are capable of moving rapidly over long distances.

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2. Wood bison are the larger of the two subspecies of modern American bison. Adult males are approximately 6 feet tall at the shoulder, 10 feet long, and weigh more than 2,000 pounds. The females are smaller, generally weighing around 1,200 pounds. The wood bison has curving horns that point upward and hair on the chin that resembles a beard. Their head and shoulders are large compared to their hindquarters, with a pronounced hump ahead of the front legs. The wood bison's hump rises almost straight up from the neck, and then slopes downward to the hips. The bone structure of this giant, forward hump has evolved in the wood bison to support a massive muscle structure that helps them sweep their head through deep northern snows to access grasses and sedges in winter. They have a dense coat of soft, durable hair that is not hollow like moose, caribou and sheep, but is more like human hair. The hair color ranges from dark brown to black along the legs and lower body, to light brown along the hump. Wood bison begin to lose their winter coat as temperatures warm in the early spring. By mid-summer the coat is completely shed and has been replaced with new hair.

Wood bison are pregnant for nine months and can give birth from April to August, with most calves born in May. Newborn calves are reddish in color, similar to moose calves. In order to evade predators, calves can stand within 30 minutes of birth and can run and kick within hours. After a week, calves will begin grazing but will continue to nurse for several months. After 10 weeks, their coats begin to darken to a deep brown by about 15 weeks of age.

Feeding Ecology

Wood bison are primarily grazers, mainly eating grasses, sedges, and forbs. They can also use a variety of other plants; for example, silverberry and willow leaves make up part of their summer diet. Wood bison graze in meadows, around lakes and rivers, and in recent burns.

Wood bison have strong social bonds and like to be near other bison. Cows and young bison live in groups of up 20 to 60 animals during most of the year. Adult bulls usually live in smaller groups and stay separate from the larger groups of cows and young bison except in late summer, during the breeding season.

Wood bison generally move between seasonal ranges within a home range. The size of the year-round range tends to increase with population size, and also depends on habitat quality. In lower quality habitats they will move over a larger home range. Wood bison move each day from meadow to meadow, where they graze and rest before moving on. Although bison move slowly when feeding, they are capable of moving rapidly over long distances.

Plains bison (B. bison bison) are the other subspecies of American bison in Alaska, but only wood bison occurred naturally in Alaska. A small population of plains bison was established in 1928 near Delta Junction, thousands of miles from their natural range. Although plains bison are similar in appearance to wood bison, wood bison are on average about 15% heavier than plains bison. A wood bison's hump is taller and has its highest point forward of the front legs. The wood bison has woolly hair along its ribs, where plains bison have very short hair. The hair of the wood bison's beard, throat latch, ventral neck mane, chaps, and penis tuft are much less developed than that of plains bison. Wood bison vocalizations are different vocalizations from those of plains bison, and the wood bison's social interactions during the rut tend to be less violent than plains bison. All of these differences are evidence of the wood bison's adaptation to its northern environment: pockets of grassy meadow habitat within the sea of boreal forest, where temperatures can be quite cold and snow can be deep for extended periods.