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Wildlife, Animals, and Plants
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WILDLIFE DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Bison bison | Bison
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION :
Historically, bison were widespread in North America from Alaska and
western California across the United States and into northern New Mexico
[11,53,66]. Today, bison occur in geographically isolated populations
in parks and preserves (See ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS), other public lands,
and on private ranches. The only large herds of bison in North America
are in Yellowstone National Park, Montana and Wyoming, Wood Buffalo
National Park, Alberta, and Mackenzie Bison Sanctuary and the Slave
River Lowlands, Northwest Territories [11,27,53]. Smaller herds occur
in Alaska; northeastern British Columbia; near Nahanni Butte, Northwest
Territories; northwestern Saskatchewan; Elk Island National Park,
Alberta; Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming; National Bison Range and
Crow Reservation, Montana; Wind Caves National Park, South Dakota;
Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge and the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve,
Oklahoma; Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota; Henry
Mountains, southern Utah; northeastern Colorado; Nebraska; and Kansas
[11,35,51,53,83,84,91,93,96].
ECOSYSTEMS :
FRES11 Spruce-fir
FRES19 Aspen-birch
FRES21 Ponderosa pine
FRES23 Fir-spruce
FRES26 Lodgepole pine
FRES29 Sagebrush
FRES35 Pinyon-juniper
FRES36 Mountain grasslands
FRES37 Mountain meadows
FRES38 Plains grasslands
FRES39 Prairie
FRES40 Desert grasslands
FRES44 Alpine
STATES :
| AK |
CO |
KS |
MT |
NE |
ND |
OK |
SD |
UT |
WY |
BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS :
8 Northern Rocky Mountains
9 Middle Rocky Mountains
12 Colorado Plateau
13 Rocky Mountain Piedmont
14 Great Plains
15 Black Hills Uplift
16 Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands
KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS :
K011 Western ponderosa forest
K016 Eastern ponderosa forest
K017 Black Hills pine forest
K018 Pine-Douglas-fir forest
K023 Juniper-pinyon woodland
K024 Juniper steppe woodland
K038 Great Basin sagebrush
K051 Wheatgrass-bluegrass
K052 Alpine meadows and barren
K055 Sagebrush steppe
K056 Wheatgrass-needlegrass shrubsteppe
K057 Galleta-three-awn shrubsteppe
K063 Foothills prairie
K064 Grama-needlegrass-wheatgrass
K065 Grama-buffalograss
K066 Wheatgrass-needlegrass
K067 Wheatgrass-bluestem-needlegrass
K068 Wheatgrass-grama-buffalograss
K069 Bluestem-grama prairie
K070 Sandsage-bluestem prairie
K074 Bluestem prairie
K075 Nebraska Sandhills prairie
K081 Oak savanna
K085 Mesquite-buffalograss
K098 Northern floodplain forest
SAF COVER TYPES :
12 Black spruce
13 Black spruce-tamarack
16 Aspen
204 Black spruce
217 Aspen
218 Lodgepole pine
220 Rocky Mountain juniper
235 Cottonwood-willow
237 Interior ponderosa pine
239 Pinyon-juniper
253 Black spruce-white spruce
254 Black spruce-paper birch
SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES :
101 Bluebunch wheatgrass
102 Idaho fescue
104 Antelope bitterbrush-bluebunch wheatgrass
105 Antelope bitterbrush-Idaho fescue
107 Western juniper/big sagebrush/bluebunch wheatgrass
110 Ponderosa pine-grassland
301 Bluebunch wheatgrass-blue grama
302 Bluebunch wheatgrass-Sandberg bluegrass
303 Bluebunch wheatgrass-western wheatgrass
304 Idaho fescue-bluebunch wheatgrass
305 Idaho fescue-Richardson needlegrass
306 Idaho fescue-slender wheatgrass
307 Idaho fescue-threadleaf sedge
309 Idaho fescue-western wheatgrass
310 Needle-and-thread-blue grama
311 Rough fescue-bluebunch wheatgrass
313 Tufted hairgrass-sedge
314 Big sagebrush-bluebunch wheatgrass
317 Bitterbrush-bluebunch wheatgrass
321 Black sagebrush-Idaho fescue
401 Basin big sagebrush
402 Mountain big sagebrush
403 Wyoming big sagebrush
409 Tall forb
410 Alpine rangeland
411 Aspen woodland
412 Juniper-pinyon woodland
422 Riparian
601 Bluestem prairie
602 Bluestem-prairie sandreed
603 Prairie sandreed-needlegrass
604 Bluestem-grama prairie
605 Sandsage prairie
606 Wheatgrass-bluestem-needlegrass
607 Wheatgrass-needlegrass
608 Wheatgrass-grama-needlegrass
609 Wheatgrass-grama
610 Wheatgrass
611 Blue grama-buffalograss
612 Sagebrush-grass
614 Crested wheatgrass
615 Wheatgrass-saltgrass-grama
704 Blue grama-western wheatgrass
708 Bluestem-dropseed
709 Bluestem-grama
710 Bluestem prairie
715 Grama-buffalograss
717 Little bluestem-Indiangrass-Texas wintergrass
718 Mesquite-grama
722 Sand sagebrush-mixed prairie
PLANT COMMUNITIES :
Before European settlement bison occurred primarily on the central
grasslands and northern parklands of North America, but habitats ranging
from semidesert to boreal forest were also used [53]. In Montana the
Lewis and Clark expedition observed vast numbers of bison in areas
floristically dominated by shortgrass species [11].
Today, bison occupy shortgrass and tallgrass prairies, boreal parklands,
montane meadows, desert grasslands, and shrub-grass habitats. In
Canada, coniferous forest and quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides)
parklands with interspersed meadows and prairies form the main habitat
for wood bison [11]. In the Northwest Territories, bison habitat along
the Slave River Lowlands is within the boreal forest region of Canada,
where white spruce (Picea glauca) forests separate vast open meadows
supporting sedge (Carex spp.) and grass communities [11]. On the Beaver
Hills near Edmonton, Alberta, Hudson and Frank [40] found that bison
foraged most often on grassy upland meadows dominated by Kentucky
bluegrass (Poa pratense) and smooth brome (Bromus inermis) and least in
forests dominated by balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera) and quaking
aspen [40].
Bison in Wind Caves National Park commonly occur on grasslands dominated
by little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), big bluestem (Andropogon
gerardii var. gerardii), Kentucky bluegrass, and western wheatgrass
(Pascopyrum smithii) [18].
In Yellowstone National Park, bison inhabit meadows with sedge and grass
interspersed with lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) forests [11]. In
southern Utah, bison occupy pinyon-juniper (Pinus spp.-Juniperus spp.)
habitat [29,72,91].
REFERENCES :
NO-ENTRY
Related categories for Wildlife Species: Bison bison
| Bison
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