Bison report card shows gains in conservation efforts

Bison conservation across North American is steadilymoving in the right direction,according to a 10-year report card released Tuesday by the American Bison Society in Banff, Alta.

For the first time, the ABSis holding its annualconference in Canada bringing together more than 150 bison scientists, producers,advocates, philanthropists and artists.

"We've moved farther and faster than I would have imagined," said Keith Aune, director of bison conservation with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

"Bison are starting to find new landscapes and we're seeing community and societies and cultures rally around its recovery. And that's a huge step."

Some of the notable milestones listed in the ABS's reportcard include the U.S. government makingthe bison the country's first national mammal, an Alberta herd making ahistoric 650-km journey back to itsancestral home and the birth of thefirst-ever genetically pure American bison calf throughembryo transfer.

"All nature matters," Harvey Locke,co-founder of the Yellowstone to YukonConservation Initiative.

"The bison is one that profoundly affects the state of the landscape it eats the grass in a certain way that leaves conditions that are good for other animals. Birds use their hair to line their nests which increases the survivorship rate of chicks."

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TheABSwasfounded over a century agoby the first director of the Bronx Zoo and president Theodore Roosevelt to save the bison fromextinction.It disbanded in 1935, but re-launched in 2005.