Reclassifying the Wood Bison Under the Endangered Species Act as Threatened Throughout Its Range: Final rule.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), are reclassifying the wood bison (Bison bison athabascae) from endangered to threatened. This action is based on a review of the best available scientific and commercial data, which indicate that the primary threat that led to population decline, unregulated hunting, is no longer a threat and that recovery actions have led to a substantial increase in the number of herds that have a stable or increasing trend in population size. Critical habitat has not been designated because free- ranging wood bison only occur in Canada and we do not designate critical habitat in foreign countries.