No species represents the loss of American wildlife more dramatically: Only 200 years ago, about 40 million plains bison (Bison bison) roamed the grasslands and shrub steppes from Mexico to central Canada, and wood bison (B. b. athabascae) ranged from boreal forests to the Arctic plain. In moving herds of thousands, bison were an ecological keystone species and helped shape the vegetation and landscape with their migrations, grazing patterns, and behavior. Their myriad ecological interactions with other native species defined the grassland ecosystems. But by the 1870s, bison populations had been decimated. An 1889 survey conducted by William Hornaday, the first director of the Wildlife Conservation Society (then the New York Zoological Society), found that only 1,091 bison, wild and captive, remained in North America.
Hornaday, Theodore Roosevelt, and other sportsmen and conservationists recognized that a great American mammal was about to be lost as the plains were settled, and so in 1905 the American Bison Society was born. The ABS launched a national campaign to raise funds to create wild bison reserves, stock them with bison from WCS’ Bronx Zoo and elsewhere, and educate the public about the bison. In 1907, the ABS shipped 15 bison to the Wichita National Forest and Game Preserve in Oklahoma by cart and rail. This was the first animal reintroduction in North America. In 1910, the ABS helped buy the nucleus herd for the National Bison Range, Montana, and in 1913, ABS donated 14 bison to Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota. Counting on the successful reproduction of the species, the ABS considered their work done and disbanded the organization in 1935.
Today the bison remains a unique icon of North American culture and natural history and now number approximately 450,000 in Mexico, the US, and Canada. Bison exist in vastly differing management circumstances, herd dynamics, states of genetic integrity, and settings than in the past. They are absent from most of their former range, and their grazing does not influence the grassland fire or nutrient cycling regimes, nor the plant structures of the prairies. Over 90% are being raised for meat in confined and managed circumstances, which can minimize the interaction they have with the landscape.
The revitalized American Bison Society has undertaken a long-term, transboundary, multi-disciplinary initiative to live up to the promise of its original founders “to protect and increase the American bison.” The complex modern identity of the bison – as icon, wildlife, and livestock – poses several challenges to its ecological future. The ABS’ long-term restoration initiative is interdisciplinary and science-based and comes at a critical time for bison and North American grasslands.