American Bison - Buffalo Field Campaign

Chapter 1 Introduction: The Context
1.1 The Species Survival Commission and
the American Bison Specialist Group
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Species Survival Commission (SSC) is a science-based network
of approximately 8,000 volunteer experts from almost every
country of the world, working together towards “A world that
values and conserves present levels of biodiversity.” Within the
SSC, over 100 specialist groups and more than 15 independent
Red List Authorities are set up to track
species’ status, monitor biodiversity, analyse
issues, develop solutions, and implement
actions (SSC Strategic Plan 2001-2010).
Among them, the Bison Specialist Group is
distinguished by two organisational units,
one for the European bison (Bison bonasus),
and the other, for the American bison (Bison
bison).
The primary goals of the American Bison Specialist Group
(ABSG), and the intent of this document, are to contribute to
the development of comprehensive and viable strategies and
management actions to promote conservation and ecological
restoration of bison as wildlife where feasible throughout the
original range of the species. Conservation and ecological
restoration of bison, as wildlife, at the scale of its original
continental range are ambitious and complex endeavours,
perhaps more so than for any other North American species.
Enhancing the long-term security of bison, as wildlife, will require
the commitment and participation of key sectors, including
public wildlife and land management agencies, non-government
environmental organisations, aboriginal governments and
communities, local communities, and conservation-oriented
commercial producers. Toward this goal, the ABSG was
established to include a broad network of people interested
in bison conservation and recovery. There are more than 60
registered members and numerous other collaborators. As with
other specialist groups, this network of volunteers represents
the functional capacity of the IUCN to monitor the status and
management of American bison in relation to global and local
biodiversity. Specialist Group participants contributed the
scientific and practical knowledge assembled in this report, and
can offer expert advice and, in many instances, the means to
make things happen on the ground by implementing actions or
encouraging and facilitating others to advance the conservation
and ecological restoration of bison as wildlife.
Lead authors: C. Cormack Gates and Peter J. P. Gogan
The ABSG is a group of volunteers representing a variety of
disciplinary backgrounds, expertise, and professional
experience. They are geographically distributed across the
breadth of the original continental range of the species, from
Mexico to Alaska, and from the Tallgrass Prairie in the east to the
intermountain west. They work for a variety of institutions
including governments, conservation organisations, and
academic institutions (see Acknowledgements).
The primary goal of the American Bison Specialist Group (ABSG)
is to contribute to the development of comprehensive and viable
strategies and management actions to enhance conservation
and achieve ecological restoration of bison as wildlife where
feasible throughout the original range of the species.
1.2 Context
Prior to European settlement, the American bison had the
largest original distribution of any indigenous large herbivore in
North America, ranging from the desert grasslands of northern
Mexico to the floodplain meadows of interior Alaska (List et al.
2006; Stephenson et al. 2001) and almost from coast to coast.
The ecological scope of the species was limited only by its
habitat requirements and specialised diet. An obligate grazer,
grasses and sedges present in grasslands and meadows are the
mainstay of the American bison’s diet and habitat. Bison have
been continuously present in North America for at least 300,000
years, persisting in various forms during the late Pleistocene
through sequential glacial and interglacial periods, then into
the Holocene and present times (MacDonald 1981; Shapiro et
al. 2004; Wilson et al. 2008). They have been associated with
successive cultures since humans first occupied the continent
about 12,000 years ago.
Over hundreds of thousands of years, bison have contributed
to the co-evolution of other biota, including grazing adaptations
in plants, mutualistic, commensal and trophic interrelationships,
and bison have functioned as a key component of the native
biodiversity in vast areas of the continent. Key species, such as
bison, have a marked influence on the patterns of occurrence,
distribution, and density of other species (Meffe and Carroll 1994;
Paine 1969). Where present, bison play important ecological
roles by influencing the structure, composition and stability of
both plant (Campbell et al. 1994; Knapp et al. 1999) and animal
communities (Bogan 1997; Roe 1970; Truett et al. 2001).
American Bison: Status Survey and Conservation Guidelines 2010 1