4 ms·

I love American bison and try to eat bison burgers and steak as much as possible to reward the ranchers who choose to raise them over cows.

hopelite 9mo ago
Unfortunately there are apparently no real true American bison anymore. A sturdy a while ago showed that all American bison in all of North America have varying degrees of cattle DNA. They’re basically all “beefalo”. They are quite different from cattle in many ways, but they aren’t actually really American bison anymore. Those technically are extinct by objective measures, not all that different than if you breed one dog with a different one, the offspring is neither of the parents and also basically nothing at all until some defining characteristics are identified, reproduced and named at least as a sub-breed.
- dabluecaboose 9mo ago
  There are several extant herds that have been genetically tested and proven "pure", although they're the minority
  - hopelite 9mo ago
    Do you recall anything about where those herds are, because I’ve only seen research showing that all treated herds have identifiable cattle DNA, i.e., https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-09828-z https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-09828-z
    - dabluecaboose 9mo ago
      I was told when I worked at Philmont Scout Ranch [1] that they had a pure herd. Other than that, I know Steven Rinella listed a few pure herds in his (excellent) book [2] on the American Buffalo, but I'd have to dig it out to find them for you. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzyMrBUys90 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzyMrBUys90 [2] https://www.amazon.com/American-Buffalo-Search-Lost-Icon/dp/0385521693 https://www.amazon.com/American-Buffalo-Search-Lost-Icon/dp/... ETA: https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/wind-cave-bison-genetics.htm https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/wind-cave-bison-genetics.ht... "Wind Cave and Yellowstone National Parks are the only two federal herds to have population sizes large enough for sufficient testing. Both herds show no evidence of cattle introgression." So there are at least two
    - dboreham 9mo ago
      Yellowstone
- chrisco255 9mo ago
  They have less than 2% cattle DNA, sometimes as little as 0.25%. That they were crossbreedable at all though shows they were already highly related.
- gamblor956 9mo ago
  Bison and beefalo are different animals. Beefalo can't be marketed as either bison meat or beef.
- dmix 9mo ago
  A lot of coyotes are mixed with dogs and wolves too

hopelite 9mo ago

Unfortunately there are apparently no real true American bison anymore. A sturdy a while ago showed that all American bison in all of North America have varying degrees of cattle DNA. They’re basically all “beefalo”. They are quite different from cattle in many ways, but they aren’t actually really American bison anymore. Those technically are extinct by objective measures, not all that different than if you breed one dog with a different one, the offspring is neither of the parents and also basically nothing at all until some defining characteristics are identified, reproduced and named at least as a sub-breed.

dabluecaboose 9mo ago
There are several extant herds that have been genetically tested and proven "pure", although they're the minority
- hopelite 9mo ago
  Do you recall anything about where those herds are, because I’ve only seen research showing that all treated herds have identifiable cattle DNA, i.e., https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-09828-z https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-09828-z
  - dabluecaboose 9mo ago
    I was told when I worked at Philmont Scout Ranch [1] that they had a pure herd. Other than that, I know Steven Rinella listed a few pure herds in his (excellent) book [2] on the American Buffalo, but I'd have to dig it out to find them for you. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzyMrBUys90 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzyMrBUys90 [2] https://www.amazon.com/American-Buffalo-Search-Lost-Icon/dp/0385521693 https://www.amazon.com/American-Buffalo-Search-Lost-Icon/dp/... ETA: https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/wind-cave-bison-genetics.htm https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/wind-cave-bison-genetics.ht... "Wind Cave and Yellowstone National Parks are the only two federal herds to have population sizes large enough for sufficient testing. Both herds show no evidence of cattle introgression." So there are at least two
  - dboreham 9mo ago
    Yellowstone
chrisco255 9mo ago
They have less than 2% cattle DNA, sometimes as little as 0.25%. That they were crossbreedable at all though shows they were already highly related.
gamblor956 9mo ago
Bison and beefalo are different animals. Beefalo can't be marketed as either bison meat or beef.
dmix 9mo ago
A lot of coyotes are mixed with dogs and wolves too