Cormack Gates is Associate Professor of Environmental Science in the Faculty of Environmental Design at the University of Calgary, Canada. He holds a PhD in Animal Science (Wildlife Productivity and Management) from the University of Alberta and worked as a research and management biologist with the Government of the Northwest Territories, Canada for 18 years before joining the University of Calgary in 1998. Cormack is a well-known large mammal ecologist and has been involved in bison conservation since 1983.

The genus Bison is represented by two species, one indigenous to Europe (Bison bonasus) and the other to North America (Bison bison). Conservation challenges facing North American and European bison differ substantially, warranting the establishment of separate sections.

The European bison exists primarily in small or very small free-ranging and captive herds, numbering about 2,900 in total in 2000. Political unrest and war were the primary causes of its decimation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Fewer than 20 survived by the mid 1920s and all wild European bison populations were extirpated, leaving a very restricted gene pool and a difficult legacy for subsequent recovery. In contrast, about 500 bison survived intensive subsistence and commercial exploitation during European settlement of the interior of North America in the 19th century.

The Bison Specialist Group for North America consists of more than 50 individuals representing state/provincial/territorial, federal, aboriginal, and private interests, and spanning three nations: Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The Group is developing a bison conservation strategy that will provide support and guidance for policy development, and conservation planning and implementation for public and private sector projects.