American bison recovered from near-extinction to approximately 500,000 animals, but welfare concerns remain around captive management, brucellosis culling, and genetic conservation.
Wild bison welfare is shaped primarily by management interventions. Roundup operations to capture, test, and selectively cull bison for brucellosis involve intensive herding, confinement in chutes, blood sampling, and slaughter — all welfare-compromising events that affect thousands of Yellowstone bison annually. Social disruption from separating herd members causes stress responses in highly social animals. Shipping bison from Yellowstone to Native American tribal lands and other conservation sites improves genetic diversity but involves the stresses of long-distance transport. Native American-led bison restoration programmes that emphasise cultural, conservation, and welfare dimensions are increasingly recognised as models for holistic bison management.