Photo courtesy of Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center
Two female Plains Bison were recently introduced to a herd of 150 on Popov Island by the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.
By Jim Magowan
Turnagain Times Correspondent
Mother Nature has some cruel tricks up her sleeves. Dutch Elm sounds like a tree that grows in Holland. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Dutch Elm is a disease that has virtually wiped out the majestic American Elm tree that greeted the European colonists who first came to the New World.
The American Chestnut tree that provided a fall bounty of delicious chestnuts to those same colonists is, likewise, virtually extinct thanks to another European immigrant, chestnut blight.
What has this got to do with the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage? Nothing and everything!
On Tuesday, Sept. 17, Abigail and Kelly, two female Plains Bison from AWCC were released on Popov Island, in the Aleutian Islands chain, to join about 150 other Plains Bison, descendants of two females that struggled to shore after being dropped into the water from a barge offshore, 58 years ago.
In contrast with the surf survival ordeal of the first two females to arrive on Popov, the pair from AWCC traveled by truck to Homer and ferry, a trip that was delayed when the Tustumena broke down, to Sand Point where another truck ride took them to the release point on the road outside of town.
The story of how the original two females, far from shore, somehow spotted the distant land and struggled to reach it while the male, that was to help establish a bison herd on Popov, did not see the land and died in the sea is too far fetched for fiction.
The story would have ended there had not one of the females been pregnant; and not just pregnant, but pregnant with a male.
Four years after his birth, that lone bull began his career as founding father of the Popov herd. The entire Popov herd was, until the Sept. 17 release, direct descendants of that one bull calf and those two females that struggled to shore in 1951.
Mike Miller, executive director and founder of AWCC pointed out, “The Popov animals look good. The bulls are huge, but, they are inbred having come from just the two original cows.”
Severe inbreeding such as this can lead to numerous problems. One is analogous to the American Elm and Chestnut problem. They are so similar, genetically, that all may be equally susceptible to certain diseases.
Until now isolation has been their only protection. If a disease were to infect a herd without any genetic resistance, the herd could be wiped out.
Inbreeding can also bring out genetic disorders that can seriously affect or destroy a population.
Concerns about factors such as these brought Shumagin Corporation and AWCC together on the recent release.
The two new cows, one of which is pregnant, introduce a new gene set into the herd. This improves the odds that there will be resistant animals in the herd if a serious disease were to strike and decreases the odds of genetic abnormalities or defects affecting the herd.
According to Miller two critical factors in bringing this project together were the willingness of the Shumagin Corporation to invest money to improve the quality of the current herd and Dr. Nybakke, the veterinarian, who volunteered and committed the time to take the bison down to Sand Point.
To understand the importance of the bison herd in the subsistence of Sand Point residents, Miller mentioned a conversation he had with one resident.
“She is 50 years old and has enjoyed the bison all of her life,” he said. “She doesn't like store bought meat, preferring fresh bison harvested under permits issued to manage the herd and prevent habitat destruction from overpopulation.”
In contrast, Miller noted that on Adak the people left when the base closed. The caribou have increased to where overpopulation could require a population control program.”
“AWCC now has Plains Bison in three parts of the state,” said Miller. “In addition to Popov, a small less then 32 square miles island, we have introduced bison on Umnak, second largest Island in the United States and 14 have been provided to start a herd in Stevens Village.
These new herds will provide both subsistence meat and commercial opportunities.”
From Portage, the benefit of AWCC to Alaska wildlife is a wildlife web spreading to more and more Alaska locations.
While not as dramatic as some other management activities, introducing or reintroducing species in areas where they have been absent for many years and improving genetic diversity and health in wild populations is possibly one of the most critical factors in long-term wildlife management.
When asked what was most rewarding about AWCC, Miller replied, ‘Being part of something worthwhile.”
