The appearance of a very young calf on a preserve 95 miles west of Chicago has given a boost of optimism to conservationists watching the recovery of North America鈥檚 wild bison, .
Bill Kleiman, who stewards the听Nachusa Grasslands in northern Illinois for the Nature Conservancy, says the calf may be the first wild bison to appear east of the Mississippi since the 1830s, and that it has catalyzed a wave of public interest in the animal鈥檚 comeback.
Kleiman says the newly born calf, the offspring of one of 30 bison brought to the preserve last fall, is distinctly wild, with genes that can be traced back to the wild herd that was brought back from the brink of extinction in the early 1900s by zoologist William Temple Hornaday and Theodore Roosevelt. The calf鈥檚 lineage has minimal crossover with domesticated cattle.听It was born on a stretch of wild prairie soon to be expanded from 500 acres to nearly 1,500 acres. The bison will be subject to a quick veterinary checkup once a year.
As 国产吃瓜黑料听wrote last year, restoring听bison to the North American prairie is not always well听received by ranchers, who worry the animals will transmit disease and outcompete livestock for forage. For now, however, conservationists have greeted the recent birth as welcome news for the future of wild bison听and their ecological role听east of the Mississippi. The one-ton animal is particularly prized for its grazing habits, which attract a wide variety of insects, birds, and other animals听with a minimum of human intervention.
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鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing more sustainable to the environment than an animal that鈥檚 been here for 5,000 years,鈥 Dave Carter, executive director of the National Bison Association, told the Tribune. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a great thing to see these animals being restored to the land.鈥