The Wood Bison are the largest native land mammals in North America. The wood bison were designated as an endangered species in 1978.
Wood Bison are dark brown terrestrial mammals. They feature very massive heads. They have a shaggy brown coat with long, thick, black beards. Males have short black horns, which curve inward, while females have straight horns. These bison have very large shoulders and a massive hump on their backs. Males are larger than females and measure about 3 to 4 meters long and 1.75 meters high at the shoulders. They weigh between 500 and 1000 kilograms. They are very distinctive animals, capable of running at speeds up to 35 mph.
Wood bison reach their sexual maturity somewhere between the ages of one and three years old. The gestational period for these animals is about 270 to 300 days. The females usually give birth twice over a three-year period and bear only single calves, generally in the month of May. Twins are rare for the wood bison. Calves are weaned at about 7 months, but are able to graze with the herds from the time they are a week old.
Wood bison spend much of their time grazing. They enjoy a diet of wild oats, rye, and wheat, lichens, horsetails and berries. They swallow their food unchewed and when they rest later in the day, they bring up this unchewed food, called cud, and chew it.
The main enemies of the wood bison are the wolf, coyote, and grizzly bear. Of course, their main enemy is man! This breed has also had numerous problems with disease. Anthrax was a major problem for these animals before 1978. They have also had problems with tuberculosis. Another kind of threat is from drowning. It is not uncommon for several hundred animals to drown by falling through thin ice.
The wood bison was never an organism with an extremely large population. In the 1800’s, it was estimated that the population was at about 168,000 animals. They were almost hunted to extinction in the 19th century. In fact, by 1893, it was estimated that only 250 wood bison existed. By 1922, their population rebounded to about 1500 animals. It was then that Wood Buffalo National Park was established. The goal of the park was to save the wood bison from extinction and to preserve their shrinking habitat. Inbreeding and disease once again diminished the herds, but in 1957, a herd of about 200 pure wood bison was discovered in a remote corner of the park.
Now, just a couple of years later, the Colorado Division of Wildlife is planning to release over 180 more lynx into the Colorado wilderness within the next five years. However, out of nearly 100 Canadian Lynx that have already been released so far, about half of them have died and none of them have reproduced. With the type of results that the process has received so far, the agencies involved in the reintroduction process should stop reintroducing the lynx into Colorado. Instead, they should try to find a way different way that will get results that save the species. The government agencies that are involved in reintroducing the lynx argue that it should be done in order to save an endangered species. In this argument they bring out three strong points for trying to save the lynx: every animal should have the opportunity to exist, many people feel happy when they see the animals they share the land with and all living things are part of a complex ecosystem ("Wildlife Commission . . ."). However, they aren't sure how to reintroduce the lynx so that they don't all die.
United States Department of the interior Fish And Wildlife Service, . North American Fauna. 2012.
However, the issues that the southern Plains tribes faced did not end there: intensive pastoralism brought on negative environmental impacts that led to the decline of the bison population.
The end of the nineteenth century brought the closing of the frontier, the near extinction of the buffalo, and the extinction of the passenger pigeon. Both species had
By the 1880's the majority of the bison were gone, so the wolves had to change food sources. This meant that they turned their attention to domestic livestock, causing farmers and ranchers to fight back. There were even some states offering bounties for the wolves. Montana had a bounty on wolves that totaled more than $350,000 on 81,000 wolves. Due to the lack of a food source, as well as the bounties being offered, a wolf was no longer safe in the lower 48 states.
Populations of the white-tailed deer have increased in great numbers. These will increase if the death rate is low and the food supply is high. A single doe can reproduce every year until they die (7). Because of this, the average herd can double in size every two to three years (3). Deer are also adaptable to the changing ecosystem around them. The growing suburbs provide open lawns, the summer gardens, varieties of shrubs, and patches of forest cover. The population cannot be controlled naturally because natural predato...
To begin, the grey squirrel’s existence began in North America, spread across three continents, and could still continue to spread even today. The grey squirrel first originated in two countries in North America. It was found on the west side of the Mississippi River; in the states of Washington, Oregon, California, and Montana. It reached as far north as Canada and claimed residence in the subdivisions of Manitoba, British Columbia, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Sackatchewan, and Ontario (Fischer, Lawniczak, Pagad). In later years, humans caused this squirrel to be introduced to foreign countries. Between 1876 and 1929, it was unintentionally released to Europe by The London Zoo. People also traveled to northern Italy and brought it over as a pet, where it was then released into the wild (Fischer). As of now, this animal is located in four European countries. These countries are Ireland, Scotland, England, and Italy (Fischer, Lawniczak, Pagad). In the future, the grey squirrel could effortlessly continue to disperse across other countries in Europe. These countries include France and Germany. It is also a threat to Spain and a number of other countries (Fischer).
It is early in the morning with the majestic Elk bugles in the distance. The sun kisses the tops of the peaks with the most beautiful gold, and paints the clouds rose red. Men and women who enjoy the outdoors, whether it is hunting or just hiking, help make these types of moments possible. Hunting and the ecosystem is tied closely to conservation of land and animals. The articles on “Hunting and the ecosystem” written by the South Dakota Game Fish and Parks Department (SDGFP), and “Facts and statistics on wildlife conservation” written by Roger Holmes, director of the Fish and Wildlife, touch on how hunting is important to the environment to keep a good balance in the ecosystem.
Estimates are that at the turn of the twentieth century over two million wild horses roamed free in the western United States. However, having no protection from their primary predator, man, by the 1970’s there numbers had dwindled to less than thirty thousand. In 1971, after a massive public uproar, Congress by a unanimous vote enacted the “Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act” (Act) that characterizes wild horses and burros as national treasures and provides for their protection.
But the treaty was destined for failure. Commercial buffalo hunters essentially ignored the terms of the treaty as they moved into the area promised to the Southern Plains Indians. The great southern herd of American bison, lifeblood of the Southern Plains tribes, was all but exterminated in just four yearsfrom 1874 to 1878. The hunters slaughtered the animals by the thousands, sending the hides back East and leaving the carcasses to rot on the plainsand the U.S. government did nothing to stop them. The disappearance of the buffalo impoverished the tribes and forced them to depend on reservation rations.
National Parks are the cornerstone of every country because it preserves the rich cultural and natural resources of a nation, such as Yellowstone in the United States of America. Yellowstone National Park is the World’s First National Park which brings millions of attraction each year, it is larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combine and have over a thousand species of plants and animal (Yellowstone Media). However, a very important type of species has been missing in Yellowstone National Park for a very long time. Wolves, which got reintroduce back into Yellowstone National Park, should stay there because without them the ecosystem would be out of balance.
Their offspring is one. The lifespan of the ring-tailed lemur is 20 years. They have a
...climatize and adapt, For example Wood Bison with only 130 left down from 168,000 in Canada in the late 1800s. It is very difficult for this animal to repopulate itself as their breeding patterns are so slow, humans are trying to reintroduce a heard that will breed and repopulate. This shows that animals will not be able to introduce themselves to the habitat easily and will need a lot of help from outside sources. The moose does not have to fear from new predators entering into its territory as there are high barriers to enter.
In 1996, Arctic Timber Engineered Woods Division, a highly mature business unit, faced a market downturn and began losing millions of dollars each month. Before becoming the President of the Engineered Woods Division, Bjorn Gustavsson had already determined that the company could not sustain its commodity business and was not aligned with the new direction devised by Peter Hammarskjöld, the CEO of Arctic Timber. According to Gustavsson, in order to prosper in a more challenging market environment, developing a specialty business was the only viable approach. The goal was to shift 50% of its commodity business into undetermined specialty by 2000. However, the Division had shifted only 10% of its business to specialty products by 1997.
Sikes, Roberts. and William L. Gannon. "Guidelines of the American Society of Mammalogists for the Use of Wild Mammals in Research." Journal of Mammalogy 92.1 (Feb. 2011): 235-253. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 5 Oct. 2011.