Monday, January 29, 2007

A CONSERVATION SUCCESS STORY


Until 100 years ago, 30-60 million Bison roamed North America's prairies. As railroads were built across the Great Plains, Bison were killed for food, skins, and to deprive the Plains Indians of their primary food source.
On Feb. 13, 1891 - when the species was close to extinction - the first Bison was brought to this park - Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. By 1998, more than 100 calves had been born in the Captive Breeding Program and the total number of Bison in Northern America exceeded 200,000.
These Bison are the largest living animal native to Northern America. They stand more than 6 feet tall at the shoulder and weigh more than a ton. Males are about 1/3 larger than females.
The sheer number of Bison and their migratory habits made them the dominant force in shaping much of our continent's prairie ecosystem.
I was thrilled to be able to see these strangely beautiful Bison at such a close range.
Click on the image to enlarge.
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27 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it's great when people stop and try to fix past mistakes...These bison are magnificent.

mi foto said...

It are a few impressive animals, nice print, the life owes protejer in order that the expecie does not go out.
Many regards

Anonymous said...

If you think about it, the Americans have caused most damage to our planets by so much of deforestation and the kind of polution they cause is just pathetic. The unfortunate thing is that even while we know the results of such things, we are not trying hard enough to preserve out ecosystem

Coy Hill said...

So sad that many times we as a species destroy something before we learn its true value.

Thankfully in this case and many others we stopped before the Buff’s were gone forever.

They are certainly impressive beast!

JaamZIN said...

they look really very impressive. I can imagine the noise they made when they were running in large group! Like earthquake

Libbys Blog said...

Magnificent beasts!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, those bad, ol' Americans! Why couldn't they stay pure and unpolluted like, say, India? They figured out how to produce less pollution and slow down deforestation by doing their logging with enslaved elephants, and they turned out OK, right?

John Roberts said...

I hope the re-introduction works! Here in the Smokey Mountains, elk were re-introduced about 5 years ago. So far they are doing well.

Dsole said...

it's a good new that you take care of bisons... Here we have a dramatic problem with the Lnyx (lince ibérico). It's almost sure that we lost this specie, only a question of time because nowadays there are less than 200 animals... This is really sad, sometimes we have success (like you with bison) and sometimes not.
But we must keep on trying!

Edulabbe said...

Impressive animals!
Do they reproduce by spontaneous generation? You say in your post that in 1891 the first bison was brought to this park and by 1998 100 calves had been born... Where did the first bison find a mate!?!?!?!
(Just kidding BTW)

Sidney said...

Indeed, impressive animals! You were not scared?

Mostly Harmless said...

Thanks for visiting and leaving your comments on my blog. I haven't been able to visit any blogs for the last couple of weeks due to taking on more work than I could handle. I look forward to catching up. Cheers

Olivier said...

superbes les bisons et merci pour l'histoire.

superb bisons and thank you for the history.

Daniele Marioli said...

Ciaoooo!!!
How are you? thancks for visit my blog!
Perhaps the problems on my blog are resolved...
very good your last post!
Ciao!!!

Susan said...

Can you imagine what it was like when you could see 1000s of these creatures thundering along the plains!
I love your beach picture a couple of days back also.

George Sou said...

Acts like this make feel better and more human!!!

Anonymous said...

Magnificent and impressive animals. I was glad to hear the gray wolf in Michigan, once endangered, is now at 9 X what they'd hoped to restore. Maybe that will happen for bison too!

mrsnesbitt said...

Awesome!
and captured on film!
Fantastic!

Dx

Unknown said...

We also have bisons in Poland. This a bit of information: http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/european_bison.htm

And here are some nice pictures:
http://www.arkive.org/species/GES/mammals/Bison_bonasus/more_still_images.html

It's called "Zubr" in Polish. It is the largest population of European bison. This animals are always amazing :)

Unknown said...

The link to the page with pictures is broken, but if you put their latin name "Bison bonasus" in google there is a lot of them :)

Anonymous said...

Wow, I didn't know you had bison at Golden Gate Park. I really enjoyed reading the info.

Annie said...

Wouldn't it be something to have so many bison that people would start to complain about them - like they are now complaining about the wolves.

Ash said...

Bisons....wow!

AphotoAday said...

You know, I've heard about the Buffalo paddocks at Golden Gate Park, but I've never been there... I know where the police horse stables are, so I'd bet it is in that area... I'll have to go exploring... Thanks for the tip...

Shammickite said...

On a trip to Wyoming a couple of years ago, we ate Buffaloburgers. Something new for me, and very delicious!

Kris said...

they are one of fave. animal! and so now we must start with the polar bears

Outhouse Capital of Canada said...

There are two farms near me where they raise Bison/Buffalo for meat
Fine animals.