Year: 1995
Type: article
Abstract: in iou, oionei ii.i. uoage traveled along the Arkansas River through an immense herd of American bison (Bison bison).Dodge estimated that the herd was at least 25 miles across and after consulting with hunters and other travel- ers, concluded that it must have been at least 50 miles long.From such descriptions, historians, anthropologists, and zoologists have tried to estimate the original or pre-set- tlement population size for bison.We will never have an answer that would meet the standards of modern wildlife research, which demand random or systematic sampling and replication.Nor is it realistic to presume that the pre- slaughter population was stable.Indeed, given pressures from subsistence hunting, the robe trade, passing wagon trains, livestock (along with their infectious diseases), altered fire regimes, and the encroaching railroads, it seems reasonable to infer that the population of bison was far from stable.Rather than trying to arrive at a single magic number, it might be more constructive to review the means through which various estimates were obtained.This review should impress upon readers the need for caution in accepting his- torica estimates.It also may provide insight into how modern landscape-level simulations might eventually replace the historical estimates with more realistic ranges of possi- ble population sizes.Three approaches have traditionally been used: direct observations, estimates of numbers killed, and estimates based on carrying capacity. Direct ObservationsColonel Dodge, although obviously impressed with the size of herd he saw in 1871, never published his observa- tion.Instead, he waited 16 years to describe the huge herd in a letter to William T.
Author: James H. Shaw
Language: English
Subfield: Ecology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Life on land
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2512536210