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"[T]he country in every direction around us was one vast plain in which innumerable herds of Buffalow were seen attended by their shepherds, the wolves; the solitary antelope which now had their young were distributed over its face; some herds of elk were also seen." -- Meriwether Lewis.
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Though he recorded many detailed scientific observations of animals the Corps of Discovery encountered, Captain Meriwether Lewis got closer to one bison than he might have desired. On May 29, 1805, a bull swam across the Missouri River and thundered through camp, skirting several of the men's heads by inches, before Lewis's dog barked and the bison ran off. One of Clark's rifles was trampled, but everyone was glad to have escaped with such minimal damage.
This lone bull undoubtedly made an impression, but the bison, also called buffalo, were most noticeable in the vast herds that seemed the very life of the plains. They infused the grasslands, their many hooves beating the ground, the bulls' roaring echoing off the hills, their backs carpeting the prairie. For plains tribes and explorers alike, the bison were key to every aspect of life. Members of the Corps worried how they would feed themselves as they pressed west and left the bison behind. |
In the second half of the 19th century, bison began a precipitous decline as the U.S. government slaughtered them to make room for cattle. Conversion of grasslands to cattle ranches, agricultural fields, and cities hemmed the bison in. Passengers on trains shot bison for sport and left them to rot, decimating the once-innumerable herds. A population of 70 million wild bison that once reached from Alaska to northern Mexico was cut to 350 by 1883.
Today, bison are returning. Efforts such as the establishment of Yellowstone National Park show how vital habitat protection can be in bringing a species back from the brink. Small wild bison herds have been reestablished, with a 2,000- to 3,000-member herd in Yellowstone. All told, including ranched and captive animals, there are about 200,000 bison now roaming the United States. But the prairie has shrunk to 550,000 undeveloped acres, an area slightly smaller than Rhode Island. Cattle grazing and other disturbances result in the introduction of less-nutritious, non-native weeds. Even in Yellowstone National Park, free-roaming bisons' last large refuge, they are sometimes shot if they wander outside the park's boundaries, in the unfounded fear that they will spread disease to cattle grazing on public lands. Inside Yellowstone, bison are harassed by snowmobiles that roar through the park.
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