American Bison

I filmed these American Bison at the Amarillo Zoo in Amarillo Texas on September 11, 2009. It was wonderful to see these magnificent animals, which were almost wiped from the face of the earth, in a large protected area. A bison can weigh up to 2, 000 pounds and reach the height of up to 6 feet tall. The animals are massive with short curved horns, which they use for defense and in fighting for status within the herd. The male bison is larger than the female.
The bison live off the grasses of the North American prairies. They have a life expectancy of 15 years in the wild and 25 years in captivity. The bison once inhabited the grasslands of North America in massive herds. It is the largest extant land animal in North America.
The bison was hunted to near extinction in the 19th century and were reduced to a few hundred by the mid 1880s. They were hunted for their skins and their bones were shipped back to the east in large quantities. The US Federal Army promoted bison hunting to allow ranchers to range their cattle and primarily to weaken the North American Indian population by removing the main food source and to pressure them into the reservations. Without the bison, native people of the plains were forced to leave the land or starve to death. The Native Americans also contributed to the decline in the bison population by over hunting them. The railroad industry also contributed in the decline of the bison population. Herds of bison could damage a locomotive when the trains failed to stop in time. The herds could delay trains for long period of times. The drought of 1845 lasting into the 1860s also depleted the bison herds.
The primary reason for the near extension of the bison was commercial hunting. For a decade from 1873, the commercial hunting would result in the killing of 2,000 to 100,000 bison a day. There was a proposal in 1874 to protect the bison. These proposals were discouraged since it was recognized that the Plains Indians, still at war with the United States, depended on the bison for their way of life. President Ulysses S. Grant pocket vetoed a Federal bill to protect the dwindling bison herds, and in 1875 General Philip Sheridan pleaded to a joint session of Congress to slaughter the herds to deprive the Indians of their source of food. By 1884, the American Bison was nearly extinct.
Ranchers like Fred Carlin ), James Scotty Philip in South Dakota , Michel Pablo and Charles Allard of Montana reintroduced the bison to North America. Yellowstone National Park has a herd of bison numbering between 3,500. This herd is descended from a remnant population of 23 individual mountain bison that survived the mass slaughter of the 1800s. The bison herds survive today and number close to 350,000. It is estimated that there are as few as 12,000 to 15,000 pure bison in the world today. Information about the Bison was provided by Wikipedia American Bison. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Bison

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• American
• Bison
• Amarillo
• Zoo
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• Ulysses
• S.
• Grant
• General
• Philip
• Sheridan
• Extinction
• Large
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• Hunting
• 1875
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• native
• american
• food
• source
• Texas

[nerddude7]

these are my favorite animal

[Darian03]

Thank you for watching. I think they are pretty cool.

[jeffguy255]

i love american bison so much

[Darian03]

Thank you. I think they are so cool.

[Bluestarwarrior1]

I have farm not far from me that has American Bison. I never knew they were on the edge of becoming extinct.

[Darian03]

I am glad that we are saving them.

[jhirzel88]

Oh okay, got it. There are just not that many in the wild because of that.

[Azicpok1]

@jhirzel88 Bison are migratory animals and yes there are plenty on farms and ranches but they need to be in the wild in the plains not at yellowstone or on ranches and im simply saying that america has become to extremely corpratized and money oriented to set aside land for them in the plains where they belong

[jhirzel88]

Wait a second, did you say they aren't or are on the edge of extinction? They have always been in captivity on farms. I imagine that once the ranchers' children grow up though, they would rather just go pursue college and then make real money at a big business. Once the ranchers pass on, they will have nobody to take control of the farm so therefore they'll sell the land. As a matter of fact, there's an empty farm across the street from me with land for sale. Hopefully I am understanding this.

[Azicpok1]

@jhirzel88 Bison arent on the edge of exticntion unfortunately america is to corporate and big buisness to lay out a area of land for them so they can migrate again