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46-676: There is a nursery of wood bison by the Ust-Buotama Reservoir on the lower reaches of the river. It was opened in 2006 with bison imported from Canada. The river has its source in the northern part of the Aldan Highlands at an elevation of almost 500 metres (1,600 ft). It flows in an approximately ENE direction roughly parallel to the Lena through a relatively narrow valley by the Lena Plateau . Finally it makes

92-427: A barrier between the bison and their food source, so they must use their large heads and neck muscles to dig for edible morsels. After the temperature rises and the snow melts, wood bison also feed on silverberry and willow leaves in the summer. Researchers believe wood bison are beneficiaries of a natural law known as Bergmann's rule due to their sheer size. Their increased body mass over their southern cousin,

138-511: A bend northwards and joins the right bank of the Lena, about 100 km (62 mi) upstream from the capital Yakutsk and 1,609 km (1,000 mi) from the Lena's mouth. The Buotama freezes between October and November and thaws between the end of April or early May. The river flows across the Olyokminsky and Khangalassky districts. The Buotama has over 60 tributaries that have

184-481: A byproduct of metabolizing the food, further contributing to maintaining body temperature. Although wood bison are native to Canada and Alaska, they have also been introduced to Yakutia , Russia as part of an ongoing species restoration project. Yakutia provides similar climatic conditions as in Canada, albeit with colder average temperatures. The Northwest Territories in Canada can drop as low as −60 °C during

230-471: A length of time. Altricial birds include hawks , herons , woodpeckers , owls , cuckoos and most passerines . Among mammals, marsupials and most rodents are altricial. Domestic cats , dogs , and primates , such as humans , are some of the best-known altricial organisms. For example, newborn domestic cats cannot see, hear, maintain their own body temperature, or gag , and require external stimulation in order to defecate and urinate. The giant panda

276-618: A length over 10 km (6.2 mi). The main tributaries are the Kharya-Yuryakh and Kuyuda on the right and the Talalakh on the left. There are about 200 lakes in its basin. Wood bison The wood bison ( Bison bison athabascae ) or mountain bison (often called the wood buffalo or mountain buffalo ), is a distinct northern subspecies or ecotype of the American bison . Its original range included much of

322-526: A remote area to form the second herd. Pleistocene Park in Yakutia originally wanted to bring wood bison into its enclosures, but failed to do so and brought in European bison instead. Precociality Precocial species in birds and mammals are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching. They are normally nidifugous , meaning that they leave

368-529: A way similar to that of megapodes, being able to fly soon after birth. It has been speculated that superprecociality prevented enantiornithines from acquiring specialized toe anatomy seen in modern altricial birds. In birds and mammals altricial species are those whose newly hatched or born young are relatively immobile, lack hair or down , are not able to obtain food on their own, and must be cared for by adults; closed eyes are common, though not ubiquitous. Altricial young are born helpless and require care for

414-399: A week old. Black mambas are highly precocial; as hatchlings, they are fully independent, and are capable of hunting prey the size of a small rat . Precociality is thought to be ancestral in birds. Thus, altricial birds tend to be found in the most derived groups. There is some evidence for precociality in protobirds and troodontids . Enantiornithes at least were superprecocial in

460-742: Is a possibility that there are surviving pure wood bison. Publicly owned free-ranging herds in Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories comprise 90% of existing wood bison, although six smaller public and private captive-breeding herds with conservation objectives comprise roughly 10% of the total, or around 900 head. These captive herds and two large isolated free-ranging herds all derive from disease-free and morphologically representative founding stock from Wood Buffalo National Park. These captive herds are particularly important for conservation and recovery purposes, because

506-451: Is derived from the Latin root praecox, the same root as in precocious , meaning early maturity. Extremely precocial species are called "superprecocial". Examples are the megapode birds, which have full-flight feathers at hatching and which, in some species, can fly on the same day. Enantiornithes and pterosaurs were also capable of flight soon after hatching. Another example is

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552-559: Is hypothesized to occur so that exposure to predators during the nestling stage of development can be minimized. In the case of mammals, it has been suggested that large, hearty adult body sizes favor the production of large, precocious young, which develop with a longer gestation period. Large young may be associated with migratory behavior, extended reproductive period, and reduced litter size. It may be that altricial strategies in mammals, in contrast, develop in species with less migratory and more territorial lifestyles, such as Carnivorans ,

598-411: Is notably the largest placental mammal to have altricial, hairless young upon birth. The larval stage of insect development is considered by some to be a form of altricial development, but it more accurately depicts, especially amongst eusocial animals, an independent phase of development, as the larvae of bees, ants, and many arachnids are completely physically different from their developed forms, and

644-461: Is only brief amongst primates; their offspring soon develop stronger bones, grow in spurts, and quickly mature in features. This unique growth pattern allows for the hasty adaptivity of most simians, as anything learned by children in between their infancy and adolescence is memorized as instinct; this pattern is also in contrast to more prominently altricial mammals, such as many rodents , which remain largely immobile and undeveloped until grown to near

690-694: The blue wildebeest , the calves of which can stand within an average of six minutes from birth and walk within thirty minutes; they can outrun a hyena within a day. Such behavior gives them an advantage over other herbivore species and they are 100 times more abundant in the Serengeti ecosystem than hartebeests , their closest taxonomic relative. Hartebeest calves are not as precocial as wildebeest calves and take up to thirty minutes or more before they stand, and as long as forty-five minutes before they can follow their mothers for short distances. They are unable to keep up with their mothers until they are more than

736-509: The boreal forest regions of Alaska , Yukon , western Northwest Territories , northeastern British Columbia , northern Alberta , and northwestern Saskatchewan . The term "buffalo" is considered to be a misnomer for this animal, as it is only distantly related to either of the two "true buffalo", the water buffalo and the African buffalo . However, " bison " is a Greek word meaning an ox -like animal, while "buffalo" originated with

782-417: The cattle industry rapidly encroaching on the park's boundaries. Disease management strategies and initiatives began in the 1950s and have yet to result in a reduction of the incidence of either disease, despite considerable expenditure and increased public involvement. The herd currently has a total population around 2,500, largely as a result of conservation efforts by Canadian government agencies. In 1988,

828-608: The plains bison ( Bison bison bison ), while the latter probably evolved from a mixing of Bison occidentalis and Bison antiquus . It is unclear whether today's animals preserve the original phenotypes existing prior to the 1920s. The wood bison is larger and heavier than the plains bison. Despite a limited number of samples, large males have been recorded to reach 3.35 m (11.0 ft) in body length with 95 cm (3.12 ft) tails, 201 cm (6.59 ft) tall at withers , and 1,179 kg (2,600 lb) in weight, making it morphologically more similar to at least one of

874-403: The plains bison , produces more heat and provides a larger frame on which to store fat for the winter months. This, along with several other adaptations, helps the animal survive in the harsh climate of northern Canada and Alaska . The wooly hair that covers the body is such an effective insulator that falling snow will collect on the bison rather than melting, further insulating the animal from

920-630: The 1920s, being measured from degrees of morphological overlaps between pure plains bison, even surpassing the preserved herds at Elk Island National Park and Mackenzie Bison Sanctuary. Natural hybridization between wood and plains bison presumably occurred for a limited extent in the regions where the two ecotypes (or subspecies) overlapped. Wood–plains hybrids are generally called "Parkland bison". As below-mentioned, disease-free and genetically unique populations of wood bison have been discovered in recent years. If these populations had little or no contacts with bison from Wood Buffalo National Park, there

966-686: The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada changed the subspecies' conservation status from "endangered" to " threatened ", where it remains. On June 17, 2008, 53 wood bison were transferred from Alberta's Elk Island National Park to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Anchorage, Alaska . There they were to be held in quarantine for two years and then reintroduced to their native habitat in

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1012-540: The French fur trappers who called these massive beasts bœufs , meaning ox or bullock—so both names, "bison" and "buffalo", have a similar meaning. Though the name "bison" might be considered to be more scientifically correct, the name "buffalo" is listed in many dictionaries as an acceptable alternative for American bison. In reference to this animal, the term "buffalo" dates to 1635 in North American usage when

1058-671: The Minto Flats area near Fairbanks , but this plan was placed on hold. In May 2014, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a final rule allowing the reintroduction of a "non-essential experimental" population of wood bison into three areas of Alaska. As a result, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game introduced the first herd of 100 animals to the Innoko River area in western Alaska in spring 2015. Currently, about 7,000 wood bison remain in wildernesses within

1104-568: The Northwest Territories, the Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba . Recently, several bison herds that are disease-free, and genetically unique compared to the populations within Wood Buffalo National Park (WBNP), have been detected. These herds were once considered as merely split groups from WBNP bison, however members of First Nations and Métis community members claimed that they knew for generations that one of

1150-704: The chronological subspecies of ancestral steppe bisons ( Bison priscus sp.) and Bison occidentalis . It is among the largest extant bovids and is the heaviest and longest terrestrial animal in North America and Siberia. The peak of the wood bison's shoulder hump sits anterior to the forelegs, while the plains bison's shoulder hump is located directly above the forelegs. Wood bison also have larger horn cores, darker and woollier hair and less hair on their forelegs, with smaller and more pointed beards. Plains bison are capable of running faster, reaching up to 65 km/h (40 mph), and longer than bison living in

1196-412: The cold. When food becomes more scarce in the winter, wood bison are also capable of slowing down their metabolic rate. The primary benefit is slower digestion rates which means the animals are able to pull more nutrients out of each meal. This results in fewer necessary feedings to maintain energy demands. In addition to greater nutrient absorption, the slower digestion rate means more heat is produced as

1242-637: The domestic chicken , many species of ducks and geese , waders , rails , and the hoatzin . Precocial birds can provide protein-rich eggs and thus their young hatch in the fledgling stage – able to protect themselves from predators and the females have less post-natal involvement. Altricial birds are less able to contribute nutrients in the pre-natal stage; their eggs are smaller and their young are still in need of much attention and protection from predators. This may be related to r/K selection ; however, this association fails in some cases. In birds, altricial young usually grow faster than precocial young. This

1288-532: The extremely small sizes of other herds, and the herd became protected under a unique designation. To strengthen the protections, a new sanctuary Kitaskino Nuwenëné Wildland Provincial Park was established in 2019 by a historic collaboration of the government and indigenous communities including first nations. Along with the Ronald Lake herd, the much smaller Wabasca herd has also become a subject of special protection. The reintroductions of muskoxen and

1334-472: The forests and mountains. Wood bison reach sexual maturity at age 2. Females will often rear their first calf by age 3 and may produce a single additional offspring every 1–2 years. Mating season typically runs from July to September, with most activity occurring during August as evidenced by the fact most calves are born in May following a 9-month gestation period. Bison young are precocial , with many mastering

1380-552: The genetic stock , the phenotype, and health condition. Between 1925 and 1928, 6,673 plains bisons, compared to 1,500–2,000 wood bisons, were translocated from Buffalo National Park into the Wood Buffalo National Park by the Government of Canada, to avoid mass culling because of overpopulation, despite protests from conservation biologists. The translocation was regarded as a severe tragedy because all

1426-407: The herds, the Ronald Lake herd, is a separated population. This, and genetic uniqueness and disease-free conditions of these herds indicate that these herds either remained isolated or had limited contacts with animals from WBNP despite being located adjacent to the boundary of WBNP. The Ronald Lake herd became particular interest among researchers and conservationists due to its genetic uniqueness and

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1472-480: The introduction of wood bison into Yakutia , Russia, were first proposed by zoologists P. B. Yurgenson in 1961 and O. V. Egorov in 1963. Compared to the first reintroduction of muskoxen in 1996, an outherd of wood bison was established as part of an international conservation project in 2006, where the related steppe bison ( B. priscus ) died out over 6,000 years ago. Additional bison were sent from Elk Island National Park in 2011, 2013, and 2020 to Russia, bringing

1518-444: The larger free-ranging herds in and around Wood Buffalo National Park were infected with bovine brucellosis and tuberculosis after the plains bison had been translocated from Buffalo National Park. Diseases including brucellosis and tuberculosis remain endemic in the free-ranging herds in and around Wood Buffalo National Park. The diseases represent a serious management issue for governments, various local indigenous groups , and

1564-414: The local forage. Loss of functional habitat is a major ecological concern for this species due to the density-dependent nature of reproduction. Wood bison are herbivorous grazers that feed primarily on grasses , sedges , and forbs . Due to frequent and heavy snowfall in their native habitat, food availability fluctuates throughout the year, leading to a diverse and varied diet. Deep snow often creates

1610-559: The mothers of which are capable of bearing a fetus in the early stages of development and focusing closely and personally upon its raising, as opposed to precocial animals which provide their youths with a bare minimum of aid and otherwise leave them to instinct. Human children, and those of other primates, exemplify a unique combination of altricial and precocial development. Infants are born with minimal eyesight, compact and fleshy bodies, and "fresh" features (thinner skin, small noses and ears, and scarce hair if any). However, this stage

1656-403: The nest in a short period of time following hatching (e.g. 24 hours). Many precocial chicks are not independent in thermoregulation (the ability to regulate their body temperatures), and they depend on the attending parent(s) to brood them with body heat for a short time. Precocial birds find their own food, sometimes with help or instruction from their parents. Examples of precocial birds include

1702-431: The nest shortly after birth or hatching. Altricial species are those in which the young are underdeveloped at the time of birth, but with the aid of their parents mature after birth. These categories form a continuum, without distinct gaps between them. In fish , this often refers to the presence or absence of a stomach : precocial larvae have one at the onset of first feeding whereas altricial fish do not. Depending on

1748-686: The pre-pupal stages of insect life might be regarded as equivalent to vertebrate embryonic development. The word “altriciality” is derived from the Latin root alere , meaning "to nurse, to rear, or to nourish", and indicates the need for young to be fed and taken care of for a long duration. The span between precocial and altricial species is particularly broad in the biology of birds . Precocial birds hatch with their eyes open and are covered with downy feathers that are soon replaced by adult-type feathers. Birds of this kind can also swim and run much sooner after hatching than altricial young, such as songbirds. Very precocial birds can be ready to leave

1794-415: The remnant wood bisons were thought to be hybridized with the larger numbers of plains bisons. However, in 1957 a relatively pure herd of about 200 was discovered in an isolated part of Wood Buffalo National Park, although gene flows likely occurred elsewhere within the park when the herd was discovered, and this herd unlikely remained completely isolated and did not preserve pure genes and phenotype. Thus

1840-527: The skills required to evade predators, such as running and kicking, on the same day they are born. Reproduction is limited by the amount of habitat available. Bison tend to disperse when there is not enough food to sustain a population within the current range, which causes a decrease in population density, indirectly lowering the rate at which mating occurs. Older bulls will typically have smaller ranges than female herds, because they live either solitarily or in smaller herds and therefore exert less pressure on

1886-530: The species, the larvae may develop a functional stomach during metamorphosis (gastric) or remain stomachless (agastric). Precocial young have open eyes, hair or down, large brains, and are immediately mobile and somewhat able to flee from or defend themselves against predators. For example, with ground-nesting birds such as ducks or turkeys , the young are ready to leave the nest in one or two days. Among mammals, most ungulates are precocial, being able to walk almost immediately after birth. The word "precocial"

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1932-450: The stature of their parents. In birds, the terms Aves altrices and Aves precoces were introduced by Carl Jakob Sundevall (1836), and the terms nidifugous and nidicolous by Lorenz Oken in 1816. The two classifications were considered identical in early times, but the meanings are slightly different, in that "altricial" and "precocial" refer to developmental stages, while "nidifugous" and "nidicolous" refer to leaving or staying at

1978-468: The term was first recorded for the American mammal. It thus has a longer history than the term "bison", which was first recorded in 1774. The "eastern bison" ( B. b. pennsylvanicus ) from the eastern United States, a junior synonym of B. b. bison had been called "wood(s) bison" or "woodland bison", not referring to B. b. athabascae . The wood bison is potentially more primitive in phenotype than

2024-496: The total to over 120. A team of Russian and Korean scientists proposed a potential de-extinction of the steppe bison with wood bison in Siberia using cloning techniques. As of 2019, the number of bison increased to more than 210 animals, and a portion of the herd was released into the wild. To strengthen the restoration further, the Yakutia's Red List officially registered wood bison. In 2020, 10 juveniles were translocated into

2070-502: The winter months while areas in Yakutia, such as Oymyakon have been reported to drop as low as −71.2 °C. Despite the frigid temperatures, the bison herd is adapting well to the new environment. As with other bison, the wood bison's population was devastated by hunting, loss of habitat, and other factors. By the early 20th century, they were regarded as extremely rare. Wood bison populations have been susceptible to hybridization with illness-infected plains bison, thereby polluting

2116-623: The wood bison in the Wood Buffalo National Park are considered hybrid descendants. However, a study in 1995 detected that there have been notable differences among each herd within the park, showing different degrees of hybridization. The herd at the Sweetgrass Station near the Peace–Athabasca Delta , as well as the Slave River Lowlands herd, preserved phenotypes relatively loyal to the original wood bison before

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