ON HIS deathbed in 1890, Crowfoot, chief of the Siksika Native American tribe, said these last words: "What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime."
Is there a more iconic American animal than the bison? For centuries they were a key part of the American way of life. Five hundred years ago bison – also known as American buffalo – were arguably the dominant animal on the continent. There were an estimated 60 million ranging over the plains – perhaps more than the human population at the time, although estimates of pre-Columbian populations in North America vary. What is well established is that after Europeans arrived in 1492, the number of bison started falling, then crashing, towards extinction. By 1890, the unthinkable had happened and there were only 750 of these great animals left.
There are now some 500,000 across the continent, but only 20,000 or so are "pure" bison. The rest have genes from cattle, the result of interbreeding efforts in the early 20th century. The pure bison are inbred, because the population passed through a genetic bottleneck when it almost went extinct. But the species is saved.
About 55,000 bison live in the private herds of CNN-founder Ted Turner. This one, at his Bad River Ranch in South Dakota, was snapped by German photographers Heidi and Hans-Jürgen Koch.
This article appeared in print under the headline "Buffalo stance"
- New Scientist
- Not just a website!
- Subscribe to New Scientist and get:
- New Scientist magazine delivered every week
- Unlimited online access to articles from over 500 back issues
- Subscribe Now and Save
If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.
