Re: Elephant/Mammoth NA

icycalmca_at_yahoo.com
Date: 02/22/05 

Date: 21 Feb 2005 18:52:19 -0800

zolota wrote:
<snip>
> But a previously unknown herd of wood buffalo
> (we have two surviving
> species of at least three at European contact) was
> discovered in Alberta
> in the 1960's.

  You mean 2 subspecies, "rediscovered", and 1957:

http://www.notitia.com/bison/PDF%20files/Kay,%20History%20of%20bison%20in%20the%20rockies.pdf

"Discussion
Although free-ranging bison have been absent from Canada's
Rocky Mountains for more than 100 years (Kopjar 1987),
historical sources confirm that bison werepresent in Banff
and Jasper national parks during the early 1800s, while a
rchaeological evidence indicates that bison were present
for at least 9,000 years.
It has been suggested that these were mountain or wood bison
(Bison bison athabascae), which maintained populations
separated from bison (B. b. bison) found on the plains
(Meagher 1973; Kopjar 1987).
The available data, however, does not support this interpretation.
First, there is no morphometric evidence that mountain or
wood bison is a valid subspecies (McDonald 1981).
Geist (1991) reported that wood bison was an ecotype, not
a subspecies, a conclusion supported by genetic analyses (
Bork et al.1991).
This suggests that whatever bison were in the mountains
during pre-Columbian times or historically were not isolated
from bison on the Canadian prairies.
Second, unless constantly replenished with animals from the
plains, it is unlikely that bison could have maintained viable
populations in the mountains (Kay et al.1999).
Long-term studies in Wood Buffalo National Park indicate that
wolf (Canis lupus) predation alone can have a dramatic impact
on bison numbers, keeping the population well below the level
the range could otherwise support (Carbyn, Oosen-brug, and
Anions 1993; Carbyn, Lynn, and Timoney 1998; Joly and Messier
2000), while studies of hunter-gatherers indicate that native
hunters were the ultimate keystone predator that limited the
numbers and distribution of all ungulate species, including
bison (Kay 1994; Kay 1997c; Kay 1998).
This interpretation complements the view that bison once
summered on the Canadian prairies but then moved into the
foothills and aspen parklands, and we would add montane valleys,
to avoid harsh winters on the open plains (Moodie and Ray 1976;
Morgan 1980; Hanson 1984;Chisholm et al. 1986; Bamforth 1987;
Epp 1988).
Some bison may have summered in the mountains, but non-migratory
animals would have been under intense predation by Native Americans,
wolves, and bears (Ursus arctos and U. americanus)."

  The third variety, mountain bison, have not been shown to be
a separate sub-species, and there is no evidence that they were
a separate species.

http://www3.gov.ab.ca/srd/fw/status/reports/bison/cons.html

"The wood bison (Bison bison athabascae) is a recognized
subspecies of the North American bison ... "
"These findings are consistent with the view that wood bison
and plains bison existed as reproductively isolated populations
during the last 5000 to 10 000 years, a relatively short time
in evolutionary terms ... "

  Wood buffalo freely interbreed with Plains buffalo, and that
has led to problems more than once. They are not separate species.

http://www.nwtwildlife.com/Publications/JournalPublications/pdfdocuments/Larter_2000_DynReintroWoodBison_AnCons.pdf

"In 1957 a very small group of wood bison was rediscovered
in a remote northern part of Wood Buffalo National Park to
the south of [Great Slave] lake (Banfield & Novakowski, 1960)."

  That was the result of a 1957 aerial survey done by Novakowski.

http://www.speciesatrisk.gc.ca/publications/plans/pdf/bison_e.pdf

"Raup (1933) speculated that the wood buffalo "as a race"
was rapidly disappearing, but speculated that an intact
northern herd still existed.
In 1959, five specimens were collected from a herd of about
200 animals near the Nyarling River (NR) and were determined
by Banfield and Novakowski (1960) to be morphologically
representative of wood bison.
The taxonomic affiliation of bison in other parts of the region
was not studied until the 1990s (van Zyll de Jong et al. 1995;
Wilson and Strobeck 1999)."

  It's not that the herd was unknown, it's just that it was
unknown that they had experienced minimal genetic mixing with
the Plains variety.

> It's conceivable that our Bison could have gone from extinct
> to a re-discovered and very much alive species.

  Um, I think that bison would have been a little bit obvious
to fur trappers in the Peace-Athabasca Delta ...

> What if it had been a herd of Mammuthus Columbi instead?
>
> Of course I wish........ LOL

  Mammoths gently and surely pushing their way through the
sturdiest game fencing: nightmare vision for Alberta ranchers.

  I predict that mammoth ranching will be restricted to areas
that do not currently support cattle ranching, despite the
"Pleistocene Park" tourist potential.
  Perhaps on Wrangell Island, or Haida Gwaii?

-
Daryl Krupa

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