The American bison, commonly known as the American buffalo, or simply buffalo, is a species of bison that is endemic to North America. It is one of two extant species of bison, along with the European bison. Its historical range circa 9000 BC is referred to as the great bison belt, a tract of rich grassland spanning from Alaska south to the Gulf of Mexico, and east to the Atlantic Seaboard, as far north as New York, south to Georgia, and according to some sources, further south to northern Florida, with sightings in North Carolina near Buffalo Ford on the Catawba River as late as 1750.
Beefalo constitutes a hybrid offspring of domestic cattle, usually a male in managed breeding programs, and the American bison, usually a female in managed breeding programs. The breed was created to combine the characteristics of both animals for beef production.
William Healey Dall was an American naturalist, a prominent malacologist, and one of the earliest scientific explorers of interior Alaska. He described many mollusks of the Pacific Northwest of North America, and was for many years America's preeminent authority on living and fossil mollusks.
Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden was an American geologist noted for his pioneering surveying expeditions of the Rocky Mountains in the late 19th century. He was also a physician who served with the Union Army during the Civil War.
George Bird Grinnell was an American anthropologist, historian, naturalist, and writer. Originally specializing in zoology, he became a prominent early conservationist and student of Native American life. Grinnell has been recognized for his influence on public opinion and work on legislation to preserve the American bison. Mount Grinnell in Glacier National Park in Montana is named after him.
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a global 501(c)(3) non-governmental organization headquartered at the Bronx Zoo in New York City, that states its mission as saving "wildlife and wild places across the globe". Founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological Society (NYZS), the global conservation organization is, as of April 2, 2024, led by Interim President and CEO Robb Menzi. WCS manages four New York City wildlife parks in addition to the Bronx Zoo: the Central Park Zoo, New York Aquarium, Prospect Park Zoo and Queens Zoo. Together these parks receive 4 million visitors per year. All of the New York City facilities are accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). WCS has a global program doing conservation work on the ground in more than 50 countries.
William Temple Hornaday, Sc.D. was an American zoologist, conservationist, taxidermist, and author. He served as the first director of the New York Zoological Park, known today as the Bronx Zoo, and he was a pioneer in the early wildlife conservation movement in the United States.
Frederic Augustus Lucas was a zoologist and taxidermist who served as a curator of the Brooklyn Museum and director of the American Museum of Natural History. He was an expert on the osteology and anatomy of birds.
Nora Perry was an American poet, newspaper correspondent, and writer of juvenile stories, and for some years, Boston correspondent of the Chicago Tribune. Her verse was collected in After the Ball (1875), Her Lover's Friend (1879), New Songs and Ballads (1886), Legends and Lyrics (1890). Her fiction, chiefly juvenile, included The Tragedy of the Unexpected (1880), stories; For a Woman (1885), a novel; A Book of Love Stories (1881); A Flock of Girls and their Friends (1887); The New Year's Call (1903); and many other volumes.
Charles Cleveland Nutting was an American zoologist, born in Jacksonville, Illinois. He graduated from Blackburn University (1880) and received the M. A. degree from the same institution in 1882. He conducted various zoological expeditions—in Central America for the Smithsonian Institution (1882–84), in Florida (1885), on the Saskatchewan River (1891)—and was naturalist of the Albatross Hawaiian expedition in 1902. He was professor of zoology and curator of the Museum of Natural History of the University of Iowa from 1886 to 1890 and thereafter was head of his department. Nutting's most important publications are systematic papers dealing with marine hydroids, which appeared in the reports of the United States Commission of Fisheries and elsewhere and were reprinted, especially American Hydroids. In this work Nutting described 124 new species and beautifully illustrated his monograph on American hydroids.
The American Bison Society (ABS) was founded in 1905 by the New York Zoological Society to help save the bison from extinction and raise public awareness about the species by pioneering conservationists and sportsmen including Ernest Harold Baynes, William T. Hornaday, Madison Grant and Theodore Roosevelt.
Bison hunting was an activity fundamental to the economy and society of the Plains Indians peoples who inhabited the vast grasslands on the Interior Plains of North America, before the animal's near-extinction in the late 19th century following United States expansion into the West. Bison hunting was an important spiritual practice and source of material for these groups, especially after the European introduction of the horse in the 16th through 19th centuries enabled new hunting techniques. The species' dramatic decline was the result of habitat loss due to the expansion of ranching and farming in western North America, industrial-scale hunting practiced by non-Indigenous hunters increased Indigenous hunting pressure due to non-Indigenous demand for bison hides and meat, and cases of a deliberate policy by settler governments to destroy the food source of the Indigenous peoples during times of conflict.
Hornaday Camp (24GH362) is a historic campsite located 10 miles (16 km) south of Montana Highway 200 near Sand Springs, Montana. William Temple Hornaday used the site during his 1886 expedition for the Smithsonian Institution to preserve the American buffalo. A noted zoologist and taxidermist, Hornaday was named Chief Taxidermist of the Smithsonian in 1882. Upon his return from Montana, Hornaday created the American Bison Group exhibit to present his findings. The exhibit was considered an achievement in museum taxidermy and popularized the practice of grouping animal specimens in natural habitats instead of mounting each specimen separately on a pedestal. Hornaday's experience with the endangered buffalo led him to pursue conservation efforts, including the founding of the National Zoo. Hornaday's Montana campsite is the only remaining site associated with his life and efforts.
Elwin Roswell Sanborn was the first official photographer for the New York Zoological Park, now known as the Bronx Zoo. A self-taught photographer, Sanborn learned to photograph wildlife by doing it. He recorded nearly every species that came into the Bronx Zoo during the first three decades of the twentieth century using black and white photography.
Kate Brownlee Sherwood was an American poet, journalist, translator and story writer of the long nineteenth century, as well as a philanthropist, and patron of the arts and literature. Sherwood was also the founder of the Woman's Relief Corps (WRC) and served as its second president.
William Harvey Brown was an American naturalist who later settled in Rhodesia. Whilst studying at the University of Kansas Brown volunteered with the National Museum of Natural History and took part in collecting expeditions in the US. While employed by the Smithsonian Institution he took part in an expedition to the Belgian Congo to observe the Solar eclipse of December 22, 1889. Brown collected a wide variety of specimens for the national museum and, as a result, became known as "Curio Brown". Brown remained in South Africa after the expedition and joined the British South Africa Company's 1890 Pioneer Column expedition that annexed Mashonaland. He afterwards fought in the First Matabele War and was awarded significant tracts of land in Rhodesia. Brown was wounded during the 1896-97 rebellion in Mashonaland and returned briefly to the US where he published a book about his experiences. Brown returned to Rhodesia and was elected to the Salisbury city council, including a period as mayor, and to the Southern Rhodesian Legislative Council.
Anna Campbell Palmer was an American author and editor. Disliking publicity, she wrote constantly under a great number of nom de plumes, adopting a new one when she began to be identified. Sometimes she had intervals of complete silence, distrustful of her powers and displeased with her efforts. After her marriage, she was known as "Mrs. George Archibald". In 1901, she began to use her full married name, Mrs. George Archibald Palmer, on all her books and articles in periodicals. She wrote a number of poems which appeared in the principal magazines of her day. She was also a successful author of fiction and biography. Palmer served as editor of Young Men's Journal, a YMCA magazine, from 1889 until 1898, at the time being the only woman editor of a young men's journal in the world.
The conservation of bison in North America is an ongoing, diverse effort to bring American bison back from the brink of extinction. Plains bison, a subspecies, are a keystone species in the North American Great Plains. Bison are a species of conservation concern in part because they suffered a severe population bottleneck at the end of the 19th century. The near extinction of the species during the 19th century unraveled fundamental ties between bison, grassland ecosystems, and indigenous peoples’ cultures and livelihoods. English speakers used the word buffalo for this animal when they arrived. Bison was used as the scientific term to distinguish them from the true buffalo. Buffalo is commonly used as it continues to hold cultural significance, particularly for Indigenous people.
