Antelope Island bison herd

Antelope Island in Great Salt Lake, Utah, is part of Antelope Island State Park. On the island, a semi–free-ranging population of American bison (Bison bison, buffalo) has been in existence since 1893. Though the island was named for the pronghorn antelope that John C. Frémont and Kit Carson found there when they explored the Great Salt Lake, bison were later introduced and the island is now perhaps most famous for its bison herd. The Antelope Island bison herd is significant because it is one of the largest and oldest publicly owned bison herds in the nation. It is one of the two bison herds managed by the State of Utah, the other being the Henry Mountains bison herd. The Antelope Island bison herd currently numbers between 550 and 700 individuals. Other large free-ranging, publicly controlled herds of bison in the United States include the Yellowstone Park bison herd (3,500 bison), the herd in Custer State Park, South Dakota (1,300 bison), the Henry Mountains bison herd in south-central Utah (300 to 500 animals), the herd at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota (350 bison), and the 400-strong National Bison Range Herd near Flathead Lake, Montana. In addition, though the bison on Antelope Island are Prairie bison, which was the most common bison subspecies in North America, the bison have a distinct genetic heritage from many of the other bison herds in the United States and they are considered to be desirable as part of the breeding and foundation stock for other bison herds, because of their separate genetic heritage and some of the distinct genetic markers that are found in the population. Bison watching is one of the most popular activities on Antelope Island. In fact, the island is perhaps best known for the bison that inhabit it, and the bison are generally easily found and observed.