Comment from Alliance for the Wild Rockies

Alliance for the Wild RockiesSupportIndividual

Summary: The commenter argues that wild bison should be protected under the Endangered Species Act because domestication, inbreeding, and artificial selection are eroding their wild characteristics and genetic diversity. They emphasize that current conservation herds are insufficient to maintain the "wildness" of the species and that large, diverse habitats are necessary for natural selection to persist.

We believe wild bison need to be protected under the Endangered Species Act as Threatened or Endangered. The vast majority of bison are being domesticated as legally defined livestock in private commercial herds. In contrast, only about 2000 plains bison exist in conservation herds south of Canada. Across America, the major threat to persistence of wild bison is domestication. But the process of domestication occurs in our conservation herds as well. Valuable wild characteristics of bison are being eliminated (Bailey 2013). Wild plains bison may not endure as our heritage to future generations. Natural selection has been a major driver in the evolution that produced all our wildlife, including all their unique and valuable characteristics. Over many generations, whole new species have developed. But evolution proceeds slowly. These changes may go unnoticed, but in time they accumulate and threaten the wild values of bison. Natural selection is easily weakened and replaced, especially in small bison populations. Inbreeding, artificial selection and genetic drift replace and weaken natural selection. Three processes weaken or replace natural selection in bison herds. They are inbreeding, artificial selection and a random process called genetic drift. Thus, inbred animals have a genetic burden that limits their survival and reproduction. This removes animals from much exposure to natural selection, weakening the ability of natural selection to favor, at the population level, many alleles that would be beneficial in the environment. Essentially, inbreeding diminishes the number of animals available to natural selection. Inbreeding is a significant issue for small bison herds, especially those with few breeding-age males relative to the number of females. Inbreeding weakens the ability of natural selection to favor beneficial alleles in the population. Artificial selection occurs when human decisions or human-created environments determine the survival and reproduction of individual animals. It is most expressed when there is selective culling to control animal characteristics and/or herd size. However, many human activities – often called wildlife management – contribute to artificial selection. For examples: predator control eliminates selection for animals with the best gene combinations for predator detection, predator defense, seeking habitat security, and predator escape. Population control, perhaps with winter feeding, limits herd size and removes much of the selection for animals best suited in terms of habitat selection, competitiveness, foraging proficiency and energy efficiency, for surviving in occasional severe winters. Vaccinations eliminate selection for animals with the best disease-resistance. Artificial selection replaces much of natural selection in most bison herds. Artificially selected bison herds will become ever-more dependent upon human support and management to survive and reproduce efficiently, especially in a wild environment. Bison will become a domesticated species. Dismantling the wild genome. In a large wild bison population, with effective natural selection, we expect that a large proportion of the animals will have a large proportion of allele combinations that favor survival and reproduction in the wild environment. This organization of the herd genome is maintained with continued natural selection. When natural selection is weakened by random drift (and/or replaced by artificial selection), the wild herd genome is dismantled and disorganized. It becomes less effective, less efficient, for operating in the wild environment. Wild Bison and Their Habitat Requirements With the above as context, wild bison are those living with a preponderance of natural selection. For effective natural selection, bison must live in a large herd and roam over a large, diverse landscape that presents the diversity of opportunities and challenges that constitute the full array of natural selection. A large, diverse habitat is required to provide the full array of natural selection for bison. Wildness is much more than a mere romantic notion. It is a legacy of living and dying that occurred in a species’ extensive past. It is the complex, genetically organized, accumulation of diversity and adaptedness that fits a species to its environment. It has provided animals that are efficient, self-sustaining, and a valuable human resource. Wildness is resilient, yet can be eliminated – rapidly in small populations; slowly and imperceptibly in larger herds. It is happening with many species and will continue until the profession of wildlife management recognizes and addresses the issue. The definition and understanding of wildness is necessary to realize how the present array of bison herds in Montana is not adequate for retaining wild bison.

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