article_snippet: Alaska wildlife officials are preparing to release North America's largest land mammal into North America's native US habitat for the first time in more than a century.
article_snippet: Wood bison are very large, very powerful wild animals, Biologist Cathie Harms said.
article_snippet: Wood bison are the larger of two subspecies of American bison but did not roam in Lower 48 states.
article_snippet: two subspecies of American bison are plains bison, which were not native to Alaska but were introduced to the state in 1928, where two subspecies of American bison have thrived.
article_snippet: Wood bison flourished for thousands of years in Alaska but disappeared in the 1800s or early 1900s.
article_snippet: the state had a strong interest in reintroduction as a source of food for subsistence hunters and as a game animal for sport hunting, but plans ran into a political snag.
article_snippet: Wood bison flourished for thousands of years in Alaska but disappeared in the 1800s or early 1900s .
article_snippet: In 2008, Alaska imported 53 wood bison from a national park in Canada, adding to a smaller herd that was held at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage.
article_snippet: However, wood bison are a threatened species and state officials worried that the federal government would designate wood bison new home in the wild as critical habitat, requiring consultation with federal agencies before oil and gas drilling or other development could occur.
article_snippet: The US Fish and Wildlife Service in 2013 declared that wood bison reintroduced in Alaska would be considered an experimental population not essential to the continued existence of the species.
article_snippet: wood bison reintroduced in Alaska will be managed by state wildlife officials and exempt from certain restrictions in the Endangered Species Act.
article_snippet: The Fish and Game Department does not expect predators to be a problem.
article_snippet: Alaska did not record a bear or a wolf killing a plains bison until nearly 30 years after Wolves were introduced 87 years ago.
highlights_snippet: Animals can weigh 2,000lbs and are North America's largest land mammal .
  
highlights_snippet: Flourished for thousands of years but disappeared in the 1800s or 1900s .
  