Dean M. Chriss
Photography
American Bison in Snow

American Bison in Snow

(Click image to enlarge)

Bison are the largest land animal in North America. Sixty million of them once roamed our grasslands in herds that could measure 50 miles across. By 1884 hunters had killed all but 325 wild bison in the United States, and the Army was ordered to protect the remaining herd in Yellowstone National Park where only 25 bison remained. Today Yellowstone is home to the only truly wild and free-roaming population of bison in the United States, which numbers about 16,000.