Dean M. Chriss
Photography
Bison Herd in Fog
(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. Their range
extended east to the Atlantic Seaboard of the United States, south to Florida
and the Mexican states of Durango and Nuevo León, and to Great Bear Lake in far
northwestern Canada. By 1884 bison were nearly extinct, with only about 325 wild
bison remaining in the United States. This was due to a combination of
commercial hunting and slaughter in the 19th century and introduction of bovine
diseases from domestic cattle. The United States Army was ordered to protect the
remaining herd in Yellowstone National Park where only 25 remained. Today
Yellowstone is home to the last truly wild and free-roaming population of bison
in the United States, which numbers about 16,000.