I noticed that a user is going through flagging a ton of American Bison observations as captive, including some I took in Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota. I messaged to ask why and he said that there are only a few truly wild bison herds on earth and the rest are fenced or managed. I am curi…

They were crossbred with cattle long ago. Their phenotype is all bison now but they all have (often a significant amount) of cattle genes. No farms keep pure bison.

As a professional plant taxonomist, I can tell you that taxonomy, the naming and classifying of organisms, is not the simple, easy process that we might wish. Among the many problems, introgression happens. That is, two individuals hybridize, their offspring breed back to one of the parental speci…

I completely agree, they’re bison. But a lot of people (especially those in favor of introducing bison) really care about the bison being 100% pure, which very few bison today are.

A situation for which the saying, “The perfect is the enemy of the good” was created. (Eyes rolling)

[image] sedgequeen: The perfect is the enemy of the good It can work the other way, too. People can settle for “good enough,” and use that as a reason not to do better.

True, but in the case of bison with a low percentage of cattle genes, I stand by “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”

I think that example does do a good job of showing that ‘cultivated’ things do matter and probably should have some option where they are not demoted from research grade, as it is scientifically valuable to know where large cultivated populations are. Also, if someone has planted a highly invasive s…

Something interesting is that the Wind Cave Bison aren’t as confined as they seem. There have been cases where bison from adjacent Custer State Park have gotten across the park border and have attempted joining in with the Wind River herd. According to the article this isn’t an isolated occurrence, …

Welcome to the Forum! I have nothing more to add to (what I consider) this inane conversation.

Wild American Bison are captive?

General

jasonhernandez74 July 28, 2021, 3:40am 157

It can work the other way, too. People can settle for “good enough,” and use that as a reason not to do better.

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Wild American Bison are captive?

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