There were over 300 million American bison in the 1800’s. I am glad to see them return to growing in numbers, they are magnificent animals.
Bison are bat hanging crazy critters. The problem with 300 million roaming bison, besides being disease carriers, is, trains were no match for a mile-wide swath of stampeding animals. Neither are homesteads. Which is why wholesale elimination of bison begin with when the train tracks were first laid.