Bison population needs land to grow: study

Restoring the wild bison population in North America depends on the land made available for roaming and a change in public attitude towards the animal, says a new study co-edited by a Calgary researcher.

"We're on the brink of making some major breakthroughs in terms of re-establishing significant populations of bison, restoring them ecologically on the continent," said Cormack Gates, a co-editor of a report released Tuesday called American Bison: Status survey and conservation guidelines 2010.

Finding proper land for bison to breed and roam freely is the biggest challenge, said Gates, a professor of environmental design at the University of Calgary.

"The message to the government is to look at the bison as legitimate wildlife and find places within their jurisdictions where this is possible to restore them as such to the landscape," Gates told CBC News.

The report notes some ideal areas for the massive mammals, including five watersheds within Banff and Jasper national parks.

Bison populations can be threatened by limited habitat and severe winters. But a public perception that bison only ran wild in the past, or that they're only good for burgers today, needs to change, Gates said.

Experts from around the world have been trying to figure out how to bolster the bison population since war and hunting nearly wiped out all bison species in North America during the late 1800s.

The American bison, which includes plains and wood bison, is considered near-threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

As of 2008, there were about 400,000 bison in commercial herds in North America, but there has been little effort to increase those numbers, said the group.