Two subspecies of bison now live in North America.
Posted on 11/25/2004 7:25:47 PM PST by Fatalis
WASHINGTON - Hunters may not be to blame for the decline in bison populations, according to a new study that points the finger at climate change.
Scientists had thought bison were hunted to the brink of extinction when people first crossed an ice-free bridge between what's now Alaska and Siberia.
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Two subspecies of bison now live in North America. |
Now researchers say bison DNA shows their genetic diversity began to decline more than 20,000 years before humans reached eastern Beringia in what is now North America, according to archeological evidence.
Scientists at Oxford University analysed DNA samples from 442 fossils from bison that lived in what's now Alaska, Canada, China and Siberia.
The team of 27 scientists said the decline in bison diversity coincided with a deep freeze that may have done in many of the animals about 32,000 to 42,000 years ago.
The results suggest the two subspecies of bison ranging across North America today, the plains and the wood bison, are likely descendents of one population that migrated south before the deep freeze.
Cold "and arid conditions increasingly dominated, and some component of these ecological changes may have been sufficient to stress bison populations across Beringia," the study's authors wrote in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
Brown bears and a type of horse went extinct in Alaska at about the same time.
The researchers say their results point to climate as the main cause of decline for bison, rather than the final blow they faced.
BTW - The difference between a buffalo and a bison is that you can't wash your face in a buffalo.
'La bonne cuisine est la base du véritable bonheur.' - Auguste Escoffier
(Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness.)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Of course the cost would be offset by the gallons and gallons of Bio Fuel converted from the cooking oil for your Monster Truck. Also the Bison excrement could be used to keep your wig-warm...
For reasons too geeky to go into, I'll add you after I get home from where I am now, and I've got another add and a drop to do. :')
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One would think the Bison is extinct, and somehow, it was the fault of the Ice Age..
Quite to the contrary, the Bison was doing quite well when european colonists reached american shores..
In fact, early americans documented complaints of bison as far east as New York, and having their buildings knocked down by bison that were attempting to "get rid of an itch"..
The bison is (was) not just a plains critter..
They also populated forested areas, and were wide-spread across the continent.. ( although they probably didn't do too well in desert areas of the southwest, they were also there, in smaller numbers.. )
The position that the Ice Age created a "decline" in the population is basically true, but hardly monumental news..
A great deal of the animal's grazing range was covered in ice.. the resultant reduction in grazing further resulted in a reduction in population..
The article is interesting in that it uses DNA testing to document "which" bison strains survived to the present, but actually, IMHO, really doesn't advance science by reaching conclusions as stated in the title..
This article is total BS
After the Ice:
A Global Human History
20,000-5000 BC
by Steven Mithen
http://www.beringia.com/02/02maina4.html
Maybe this brief description of two short-faced bear species would be of interest.
PETA is deeply saddened, those damn early meat eaters didn't do it.
"At the end of the last Ice Age (just yesterday in geological time), camels, bisons, mammoths, lions, saber-toothed cats, and packs of wolves roamed the Los Angeles Basin."
They still do, plus some variants of hippos, RINO's DemoncRATs, and of course the Glutenous Michaelis Mooreass.
I beg to differ. Buffalo meat is, on the whole, better tasting and healthier than cattle beef.
The reason we keep cattle is because they've been bred for docility for millenia. Buffalo are more much more aggresive and prone to violence.
Thanks!
Ancient bison done in by climate, not hunters. Conclusion of study already drawing fire. (update)
San Francsico Chronicle | Nov. 26, 2004 | David Perlman
Posted on 11/26/2004 9:42:16 PM PST by FairOpinion
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1289187/posts
Bison Bone Discovery Turns B.C. History Upside-Down
My Telus | 12-31-2004
Posted on 01/01/2005 9:22:55 PM PST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1312324/posts
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution. |
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