DNA was extracted from bison fecal samples using the QIAmp PowerFecal Pro DNA Kit. Sequencing library was prepared as per the 16S Metagenomic Sequencing LibraryPreparation guide (Illumina; Part # 15044223 Rev. B). The primers used for 16S rRNA amplification were 515F (Parada et al, 2016) and 806R (Apprill et al., , 2020), encompassing the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene.