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A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 5 November 2019
Time ticks away at wild bison genetic diversity

By MORGAN LEE Associ-
ated Press
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Evi-
dence is mounting that
wild North American bi-
son are gradually shed-
ding their genetic diversity
across many of the isolated
herds overseen by the U.S.
government, weakening
future resilience against
disease and climate events
in the shadow of human
encroachment.
The extent of the creeping
threat to herds overseen by
the Department of Interior
— the backbone of wild bi-
son conservation efforts for
North America — is coming
into sharper focus amid ad-
vances in genetic studies.
Preliminary results of a ge-
netic population analysis
commissioned by the Na-
tional Park Service show
three small federal herds In this Oct. 26, 2019, file photo, riders herd bison during the annual bison roundup on Antelope Island in Utah.
would almost certainly die Associated Press
off — extinguishing their impassioned discussions gests the problem, left ring hulking mammals or cies, the Wildlife Conser-
DNA lineage — within 200 about ensuring the iconic unchecked, would likely spreading diseases such vation Society assembled
years under current man- mammal's lasting place in spell doom for small herds as brucellosis that leads DNA information from more
agement practices that the wild. wandering the immense to aborted calves, said than 1,800 bison among 16
limit transfers for interbreed- Bison squeezed through Wrangell - St. Elias National Gregg Adams, a professor federal herds, with addi-
ing among distant herds. a perilously small genetic Park and Preserve in Alas- of veterinary biomedical tional sampling from two
The study is awaiting peer bottleneck in the late 1800s ka, the hemmed-in bison sciences at the University publicly managed Cana-
review by other scientists. with the hunting and ex- at the Chickasaw National of Saskatchewan who has dian herds.
It does not include Yellow- termination of the massive Recreation Area in Oklaho- pioneered the reproduc- Brendan Moynahan, chair-
stone National Park's herd animals that had num- ma that descended from tive technologies on bison. man of the Interior Depart-
of some 5,000 unfenced bered in the tens of millions. a group of six animals, and But federal wildlife manag- ment's Bison Work Group,
bison, the largest federal At one point, fewer than a a tiny educational display ers and some indigenous said genetic-diversity con-
conservation herd that's 1,000 survived. herd at Sullys Hill National communities are loath to cerns could add momen-
seen by millions of people Federal wildlife authorities Game Preserve in North adopt such techniques tum to initiatives already
who visit the park annually. now support about 11,000 Dakota. that move away from natu- afoot for larger conserva-
"Some of these herds that genetically pure bison with At the same time, strategi- ral selection in mating. tion herds where enough
lost the most genetic diver- only the slightest traces of cally exchanging as few as Peter Dratch, a senior bi- open space can be found,
sity do have a high prob- cattle interbreeding. The two bison between herds ologist in Colorado for the potentially in collaboration
ability of going extinct, herds represent one third every 10 years would fore- Fish and Wildlife Service's with Native American com-
due to the accumulation of all bison maintained stall the genetic deteriora- wildlife inventory and moni- munities that revere the
of inbreeding," explained for conservation purposes tion of small herds, the re- toring program, cautioned buffalo.
Cynthia Hartway, a conser- across North America. search found. against even more subtle At the Blackfeet Indian Res-
vation scientist at the bison Many of the conservation Hartway said transfers human interference in ervation in Montana, tribal
program with Wildlife Con- herds overseen directly alone don't stop that slow managing wild herds, such leaders who re-established
servation Society who led by the Interior Depart- ebb of genetic diversity as inoculations or rescuing wild bison in 2016 have
the analysis. ment have 400 or fewer from the combined "meta- ailing bison for treatable described their vision for
The preliminary findings animals — leaving them population" — the collec- diseases. He believes do- herds that roam freely into
were presented at a work- prone to problems of in- tive DNA profile of scat- mestic versions of bison will neighboring Glacier Na-
shop of the American Bison breeding and genetic drift tered federal conservation emerge from commercial tional Park, the Badger-Two
Society in the buffalo-rais- that reduce environmental herds — and that more herds, where bison number Medicine wilderness and
ing Native American com- adaptability. large herds may be need- 400,000 or more. Canada's Waterton Lakes
munity of Pojoaque, amid The new analysis sug- ed in the long run. "You don't want to go over- National Park — an area
"We're kind of putting a board, to play God," he spanning several thousand
band-aid on the problem. said. square miles.
The problem is we have Wild bison DNA is typical- Despite concerns, Moy-
small, isolated herds." ly sampled from tail-hair nahan insisted the plains
Others see modern repro- gathered at cattle-style bison and larger northern
ductive technology as a roundups, or with small wood bison are on a better
solution. flesh-biting darts, and even genetic footing than other
Frozen bison embryos and blood samples from ani- wild North American mam-
in vitro fertilization hold out mals killed by hunters in re- mals such as the black-
promise for easing genet- mote locations. footed ferret that have
ic isolation among herds In its cooperative effort with had close brushes with
without the risks of transfer- federal and state agen- extinction.q