Bison Conservation
FAIR USE NOTICE: Reproduction of the bison research on this site is for nonprofit educational purposes only, and is posted only for the purposes of scholarly research and investigation of the status of Bison bison and should not be used for further distribution.

"Today, the plains bison is for all practical purposes ecologically extinct within its original range."  
C.H. Freese, Second chance for the plains bison

"Current management of private, state and Federal bison herds is leading towards domestication of bison that threatens their wild character and limits important natural selection processes." 
Position Statement of the Montana Chapter of The Wildlife Society on Wild Bison in Montana

"Yellowstone National Park is the only place in the lower 48 States where bison have existed in a wild state since prehistoric times. Bison occupied the region encompassing the park from shortly after recession of the last glaciers 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, until the 19th century when they came close to extirpation."
C. Cormack Gates, The Ecology of Bison Movements and Distribution in and beyond Yellowstone National Park

"The Bison of Yellowstone National Park are unique among bison herds in the United States, being descendants, in part, of the only continuously wild herd in this country."
Margaret Mary Meagher, The Bison of Yellowstone National Park

Berger, Joel. 2004. The Last Mile: How to Sustain Long-Distance Migration in Mammals. Conservation Biology 18(2): 320-331. (PDF, 504kb, 12 pages)

Bjornlie, Daniel D. and Robert A. Garrott. 2001. Effects of Winter Road Grooming on Bison in Yellowstone National Park. Journal of Wildlife Management 65(3): 560-572. (PDF, 1MB, 14 pages)

Boyd, Delaney P. 2003. Conservation of North American Bison: Status and Recommendations. Master’s Dissertation, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta. 235 pp. (PDF, 3.1MB, 235 pages)

Boyd, Delaney P. and C. Cormack Gates. 2006. A Brief Review of the Status of Plains Bison in North America. JOW 45(2): 15-21. (PDF, 286kb, 7 pages)

Cannon, Kenneth P. 1992. Woodland or Plains: A Multivariate Analysis of Prehistoric Bison from Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. Seventh Conference on Research and Resource Management in Parks and on Public Lands, Jacksonville, Florida.

Cannon, Kenneth P. 1997. The Analysis of a Late Holocene Bison Skull from Fawn Creek, Lemhi County, Idaho, and Its Implications for Understanding the History and Ecology of Bison in the Intermountain West. Report Prepared for The Department of Agriculture, United States Forest Service, Salmon-Challis National Forest, Salmon, Idaho. 82 pp. (PDF, 2.2MB, 82 pages)

Cannon, Kenneth P. 2001. WHAT THE PAST CAN PROVIDE: CONTRIBUTION OF PREHISTORIC BISON STUDIES TO MODERN BISON MANAGEMENT. Great Plains Research 11(1): 145-174.
(PDF, 1MB, 30 pages)

Cheville, Norman F., Dale R. McCullough, Lee R. Paulson. 1998. Brucellosis in the Greater Yellowstone Area. National Research Council. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C. 186 pp.

Collins, Scott L., Alan K. Knapp, John M. Briggs, John M. Blair, Ernest M. Steinauer. 1998. Modulation of Diversity by Grazing and Mowing in Native Tallgrass Prairie. Science, New Series, 280(5364): 745-747.
(PDF, 212kb, 4 pages)

Cope, E.D. 1885. The Present Condition of the Yellowstone National Park. The American Naturalist 19(11): 1037-1040. (PDF, 128kb, 5 pages)

Davis, L. B. and C. D. Zeier. 1978. Multi-Phase Late Period Bison Procurement at the Antonsen Site, Southwestern Montana. Pages 222-235 in L. B. Davis, and M. Wilson, editors. Bison Procurement and Utilization: A Symposium, Plains Anthropologist Memoir 14 23(82), Pt. 2.

Flores, Dan. 1991. Bison Ecology and Bison Diplomacy: The Southern Plains from 1800 to 1850. Journal of American History 78(2): 465-485.
(PDF, 740kb, 22 pages)

Freese, Curtis H., Keith E. Aune, Delaney P. Boyd, James N. Derr, Steve C. Forrest, C. Cormack Gates, Peter J.P. Gogan, Shaun M. Grassel, Natalie D. Halbert, Kyran Kunkel, Kent H. Redford. 2007. Second chance for the plains bison. Biological Conservation 136(2): 175-184.
(PDF, 1.1MB, 11 pages)

Gardipee, Florence M. 2007. DEVELOPMENT OF FECAL DNA SAMPLING METHODS TO ASSESS GENETIC POPULATION STRUCTURE OF GREATER YELLOWSTONE BISON. Master’s Thesis, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana. 63 pp. (PDF, 472kb, 63 pages)

Gates, C. Cormack, Brad Stelfox, Tyler Muhly, Tom Chowns, Robert J. Hudson. 2005. THE ECOLOGY OF BISON MOVEMENTS AND DISTRIBUTION IN AND BEYOND YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, A Critical Review With Implications for Winter Use and Transboundary Population Management. University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta. 329 pp. (PDF, 7.9MB, 329 pages)

Geist, Darrell. 2007. Status review of public lands grazing on the Gallatin National Forest Hebgen Lake and Gardiner Ranger Districts, A critique of land management decisions on National Forest lands and their impact on wild bison in Yellowstone. Unpublished report, Buffalo Field Campaign.
(PDF, 1.1MB, 7 pages)

Geist, Darrell, Gardiner and Hebgen Lake Public Lands Grazing Permits
(Excel, 36kb, 1 pages)

Greater Yellowstone Science Learning Center. 2006. Yellowstone National Park Ethnography Overview. 9 pp. (PDF, 92kb, 9 pages)

Halbert, Natalie D. 2003. THE UTILIZATION OF GENETIC MARKERS TO RESOLVE MODERN MANAGEMENT ISSUES IN HISTORIC BISON POPULATIONS - IMPLICATIONS FOR SPECIES CONSERVATION. Ph.D. Dissertation, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. 213 pp.
(PDF, 336kb, 10 pages)

Halbert, Natalie D. and James N. Derr. 2007. A Comprehensive Evaluation of Cattle Introgression into US Federal Bison Herds. Journal of Heredity 98(1): 1–12.
(PDF, 224kb, 12 pages)

Hornaday, William T. 1889. The Extermination of the American Bison, From the Report of the National Museum, 1886-’87, pp: 369-548, Smithsonian Institution, United States National Museum, Washington, D.C. Republished 2006 by The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, Project Gutenberg EBook ™, Fairbanks, Alaska.
ftp://indian.cse.msu.edu/pub/mirrors/Gutenberg/1/7/7/4/17748/17748-h/17748-h.htm

Isenberg, Andrew C. 2000. The Destruction of the Bison: An Environmental History, 1750-1920. Cambridge University Press, New York, New York. 206 pp. (PDF, 128kb, 15 pages)

Jourdonnais, Craig, Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks. 2006. Winter Range Assessment for Bison in the Upper Gallatin River Drainage: DRAFT FWP population objective for bison wintering in the Taylor Fork/Porcupine areas. 11 pp.
(PDF, 45.1MB, 11 pages)

Knapp, Alan K., John M. Blair, John M. Briggs, Scott L. Collins, David C. Hartnett, Loretta C. Johnson, E. Gene Towne. 1999. The Keystone Role of Bison in North American Tallgrass Prairie, Bison increase habitat heterogeneity and alter a broad array of plant, community, and ecosystem processes. BioScience 49(1): 39-50. (PDF, 1.2MB, 12 pages)

Lemke, Thomas O., Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. February 14, 2006. Bison Habitat Evaluation East of the Yellowstone River from Dome Mountain to YNP.

Lemke, Thomas O., Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. July 7, 1997. Wildlife Habitat and Wildlife Use On and Near the Royal Teton Ranch.

Meagher, Margaret M. 1973. The Bison of Yellowstone National Park. Scientific Monograph Series Number One. National Park Service, Washington, D.C. 161 pp. (PDF, 4.2MB, 178 pages)

Meagher, M. and Margaret E. Meyer. 1994. On the Origin of Brucellosis in Bison of Yellowstone National Park: A Review. Conservation Biology 8(3): 645-653.
(PDF, 988kb, 213 pages)

State of Montana, Record of Decision, Interagency Bison Management Plan. December 22, 2000. 8 pp.
(PDF, 52kb, 8 pages)

Olexa, Edward M. and Peter J.P. Gogan. 2007. Spatial Population Structure of Yellowstone Bison. The Journal of Wildlife Management 71(5): 1531-1538. (PDF, 440kb, 8 pages)

Polziehn, R. O., C. M. Strobeck, J. Sheraton, R. Beech. 1995. Bovine mtDNA discovered in North American bison populations. Conservation Biology 9(6): 1638-1643. (PDF, 216kb, 7 pages)

Schnabel, R. D., T. J. Ward, J. N. Derr. 2000. Validation of 15 microsatellites for parentage testing in North American bison, Bison bison and domestic cattle. Animal Genetics 31: 360-366. (PDF, 1.2MB, 7 pages)

Schullery, Paul and L. Whittlesey. 2006. Greater Yellowstone bison distribution and abundance in the early historical period. Pages 135–140 in A. Wondrak Biel, editors, Greater Yellowstone Public Lands: A Century of Discovery, Hard Lessons, and Bright Prospects. Proceedings of the 8th Biennial Scientific Conference on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. October 17–19, 2005, Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, Yellowstone Center for Resources. (PDF, 1.1MB, 43 pages)

Taper, M.L., M. Meagher, C.L. Jerde. 2000. The Phenology of Space: Spatial Aspects of Bison Density Dependence in Yellowstone National Park. 113 pp.
(PDF, 2.6MB, 113 pages)

The Wildlife Society. April 11, 2000. Position Statement of the Montana Chapter of The Wildlife Society on Wild Bison in Montana. (PDF, 40kb, 2 pages)

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Gallatin National Forest. Gallatin National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan. 1987. PAGE II-1.

U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service. 50 CFR Part 17, Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; 90-Day Finding on a Petition To List the Yellowstone National Park Bison Herd as Endangered. Federal Register, Volume 72, No. 157, Wednesday, August 15, 2007, Proposed Rules.
(PDF, 100kb, 6 pages)

U. S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. December 20, 2000. Record of Decision for Final Environmental Impact Statement and Bison Management Plan for the State of Montana and Yellowstone National Park. 75 pp. (PDF, 808kb, 75 pages)

U. S. Department of Interior, National Park Service, Yellowstone National Park News Release. October 15, 2007. Yellowstone’s Summer Bison Population Estimate Released. (PDF, 52kb, 1 pages)

Ward, T. J., J. P. Bielawski, S. K. Davis, J. W. Templeton, J. N. Derr. 1999. Identification of domestic cattle hybrids in wild cattle and bison species: a general approach using mtDNA markers and the parametric bootstrap. Animal Conservation 2: 51-57. (PDF, 68kb, 7 pages)

Williams, Heather A. 2005. Spatial Precipitation Variability, Snowfall, and Historical Bison Occurrence in the Northwest United States. Master’s Thesis, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia. 84 pp.
(PDF, 5.2MB, 84 pages)