The Comeback Kids--Book 10--The American Bison

The American bison, also known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds and became nearly extinct by a combination of commercial hunting and slaughter in the 19th century and the introduction of bovine disease from domestic cattle. The American bison has made a recent resurgence that is largely restricted to a few national parks and reserves.. One of them is Yellowstone National Park, USA, where award winning author, attorney and former teacher Penelope Dyan and photographer extraordinaire, John D. Weigand, set out to see all that they could see! Unfortunately, our attitude toward saving the American bison is not a pure one. Because bison is lower in fat and higher in protein than domestic cattle, American bison is now being raised privately for human consumption. American Bison were never domesticated by the USA's Native American Indians. Recent genetic studies of privately owned herds of bison show that many of these animals have domestic cattle DNA in their genetic makeup. However, as to their appearance, an American bison carrying domestic cattle genes looks exactly the same as a wild American bison. It is estimated that there are as few as 12,000 to 15,000 pure bison in the entire world! While it is sad the world numbers of pure bison is decreasing, because these animals were nearly extinct, we are happy that they are still among us as another group of comeback kids!