American Bison
by Jim Sauchyn
Title
American Bison
Artist
Jim Sauchyn
Medium
Photograph
Description
Vintage looking photograph of an American, or Plains Bison.The American Bison is a large mammal of North America often mistakenly called a buffalo and was nearly hunted to extinction in the 19th century. The numbers of this ungulate are estimated to have been from 30 to 60 million. They were a major food staple of Native Americans who hunted them by driving them over cliffs and later by horse. Europeans brought rifles to the west in the 1800's and nearly killed off this species. Often only the tongue or hide was used. By the late 1800's only a few hundred remained in a herd in Montana owned by the Native American Samuel Walking Coyote and some eleswhere in private herds and in Yellowstone Park. Samuel Walking Coyote subsequently sold his herd to Charles Allard and Michael Pablo who would eventually sell them to the Canadian government after the United States refused to buy them.This small herd was initially kept at Elk Island National Park in Alberta and later moved to near Wainwright, Alberta and then moved back to Elk Island National Park where their descendants remain today. During the last century the descendants of the 700 or so from the Pablo-Allard herd that the Canadian government bought have been sent all over North America to re-populate the species. Today their numbers are over 500,000 however because of the genetic bottleneck that occured from their low numbers and interbreeding with domestic cattle they do not have the genetic diversity they once had.
Uploaded
December 24th, 2014
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