Bison - Sounds Wild
White Bison Calf

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White bison

A super cub airplane is flying over the lush green expanse of Interior Alaska, about 60 miles south of McGrath. Wildlife biologist Josh Peirce is conducting the spring 2017 survey of the Farewell Bison herd, and he spots a very unusual looking calf. It's white. The three-month old calf is mixed in other normal-looking, cinnamon red-colored calves of the year, and the big dark brown adult bison.

The white calf was born into the Farewell Bison Herd, one of four herds of plains bison in Alaska. Plains bison, smaller cousins to the giant wood bison, were introduced to Alaska in 1928 when animals from The National Bison Range in Montana were brought to Delta Junction. All of the bison in Alaska's four herds are the descendants of 20 animals. The farewell herd has about 500 bison.

White bison are well documented, but they are very rare. There are about 1,000 bison in Alaska in those four herds, and this is the only white animal known in Alaska.

In bison country in the Lower 48, tourism and marketing outfits will tout statistics on the occurrence of white bison that are not reliable. "One in a million, or one in ten million, but there aren't a million bison in North America."

There are about 380,000 plains bison in North America, in private herds, and in public herds in state, county and national parks. As of 2017, there are about two dozen white bison known in North America, counting the new calf in the Farewell herd.