I saw a documentary (PBS? Ken Burns? Something like that) about bison and I'm astonished we have any left today. They had a couple of private herds and a handful of individuals in zoos, and that was just about it. That's after having a population, less than a century previous, that produced regular accounts of covering the land for as far as the eye could see. The only reason we didn't wipe them out completely was because of just a few people working independently of one another who thought it would be a shame to see them disappear.
I have mixed feelings about this news, because while it’s good to have more genetic diversity, it makes it easier to justify culling animals. Having multiple herds with distinct breeding populations means each herd is more likely to get protected.<p>The us government culls bison from the Yellowstone herd every year, to discourage them from leaving them park and competing with cattle grazing on public lands.<p>Bison are managed completely differently than other wildlife in the area like moose and elk, because they compete with cattle. They’re forced to stay inside the higher elevation park boundaries, even when the snow is too high for them to forage effectively. They get hazed by helicopters, chased by DOL agents and rangers on horseback, and forced to run miles through snow to cross that invisible line back in Yellowstone. I’ve seen newborn bison calves with broken legs from getting hazed back into the park.<p>If they were allowed to migrate seasonally and breed normally, they would have a much larger range and population.<p>Source: I used to live on the park boundary and was part of a group documenting bison management.
Isn't interbreeding bad for their health?<p>Genuine question.<p>Is it interbreeding in a way like all bisons present now are sharing the ancestors or is it like it's all a single family of 6k bisons now ?