American bison were reduced from 60 million to under 1,000 by the 1880s. Today's conservation herds face management challenges including disease, fencing, and veterinary interventions that affect individual welfare.
Bison welfare involves the tension between conservation management and individual welfare impacts. Capture and handling for brucellosis management, vaccination, and translocation causes severe acute stress and capture myopathy risk — bison that overheat and exert maximally during handling can die within hours from rhabdomyolysis. Low-stress handling protocols using bison-specific facilities, shade, water access, and methodical movement reduce but do not eliminate this risk. Annual culling of Yellowstone bison at park boundaries — driven by cattle industry lobbying rather than bison conservation science — causes significant suffering for thousands of individuals each year. Range expansion through tribal land returns and habitat purchases is both the most welfare-positive and the most conservation-effective intervention. Commercial bison operations should meet the same welfare standards applied to other livestock for slaughter, handling, and transport.