Scientists Studied the Mud Collected From a Yellowstone Lake — It Held Clues to Bisons’ History
It is believed that the position of its tail can determine a bison’s mood. If the tail hangs down, it means the bison is calm. And if the tail is erect, it means the bison is gaining stamina, ready to charge. In the summer of 2024, when Wakan Gli, the newborn bison, stood between two adult brown bison, it seemed calm. Hundreds of people gathered at a lake outside the Yellowstone National Park to celebrate the birth of this white-furred bison. Wakan Gli popped out from its mom’s womb in the park’s lush Lamar Valley, where thousands of lumbering bison graze daily, according to a report by NPR.
The birth of Wakan Gli was regarded as a fulfilment of an ancient prophecy, as people hoped the bison would restore the harmony and abundance of Yellowstone. It was the time when the population of bison had started to dwindle, and the animals were nearing the edge of extinction. This prophecy, it seems, wasn’t just a folklore spread around for children’s bedtime storybooks. In a new study published in the journal PLOS One, scientists confirmed the timeline of bison’s appearance, disappearance, and reappearance in Yellowstone, beginning from as early as 2,300 years ago.
It is true that the population of bison reached a bottleneck in the early 1900s, triggered by massive poaching and human activities. However, after Yellowstone initiated its conservation efforts, the good old bison started to return to the park's landscape, restoring its lush harmony and preserving vital habitats. Bison, these big, bulky, furry giants, are treasured in Yellowstone. They roam around in grasslands, forest trails, lakeshores, and snow-capped mountain meadows, grazing on crisp grasses and other items like weeds, leaves, and foliage, explains the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Bobbing their massive heads in grass or snow, they dig up food, some of which clings to their shaggy coats. Then they indulge in something called “wallowing,” which implies rolling around in dirt to tidy off their bodies. While they do all this, they act as brilliant “ecosystem engineers” that help in balancing Yellowstone’s environment. Till the 19th century, millions of bison roamed the lands of North America, but sometime near the 20th century, their population collapsed into “near-extinction.”
Records and archives were sketchy and piddling. Nobody knew where these animals lived before European colonisation. Even the archaeological and paleontological sites offered fractured clues and paltry insights. The mystery of their past seemed to be lost somewhere in time. The objective of this study, therefore, was to find evidence or a set of clues that could offer a more continuous record. The study was conducted in the Yellowstone Northern Range, a 300,000-hectare landscape in Lamar. Called Buffalo Ford Lake, the research location was bordered by groves of bushes and thickets of deciduous trees.
The team visited the ancient lake and retrieved some samples of the ancient lake sediment. Analysis of chemicals and steroids in the animal dung preserved in the lake sediments revealed that the animals likely roamed the land for the past 2,300 years. The steroid biomarkers became a fascinating tool for understanding long-term shifts in herbivore populations and their ecological impact. The chemicals were sampled from the steroid profiles of not just bison, but many American ungulates in Yellowstone, including elk, moose, mule deer, and pronghorn, lead author John Wendt explained to BBC Discover Wildlife.
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