Posted on 10/19/2023 7:56:52 AM PDT by SJackson
There were 10 million ???????? Don’t believe it for a minute.
That many and more, with a range that in prehistory extended into the eastern US.
1 herd would cover what is now 2 or 3 states. General Sherman said if we kill the Indians food we get rid of the Indians.
I wonder if a surplus herd might to well in Kazakhstan?
It is over 1 million square miles, but has only 16 million people. Lots of grassland.
You had to arrive at 3 or 4 am to get a good spot; then wait half the morning; then the herd passed by in about 20 min from when you could first see them to when they passed out of sight .
Overrated.
It’s a lovely park. You’re right about a 20 minute look at the herd. I wouldn’t travel far to see that.
I’ve read estimates of as many as 60 million on the North American continent at one time.
Why do they need to be vaccinated, and for what ?
Major Richard Irving Dodge:
“(The whole country) appeared one mass of buffaloes, moving slowly northward. Only when among them could it be ascertained that the apparently solid mass was an agglomeration of innumerable small herds of fifty to two hundred animals…(this herd) was about five days in passing a given point, or not less than fifty miles deep. From the top of Pawnee Rock I could see from six to ten miles in almost every direction. The whole space was covered with buffaloes, looking at a distance like one compact mass, the visual angle not permitting the ground to be seen.”
When I’m king, atrocious headline puns like this one will get the writer shot
Photog wife got invite to photo/film Bison roundup on private ranch. The first advice was “They don’t domesticate”. Lots of calves, the herding dogs were amazing. The calves were shot with colored pellets after being counted so they wouldn’t be counted twice. The entire enterprise was a blast and quite educational. When a herd of buffalo moves, the earth shakes and everyone except those crazy dogs gets out of the way. Took them down a highway with a police escort too, that was fun.
Lol!! Antivax truther comes to Bison country!
Stand strong BISON OF AMERICA!! DON’T GET THE JAB!!
brucellosis ...
I think Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was the first European to mention the American buffalo in writing.
If this were true, there would be no ozone layer left. Sounds like "the great slaughter" saved the ozone layer AND the eco-system for us.
Says who? The slaughter of bison was great for a growing industrial USA.
hope of all the rewilding benefits these creatures can bring.
Such as what? A psychological lift for urban dwellers?
Why do they need to be vaccinated, and for what ?
Most importantly, for Brucellosis
I believe it.
The continent looks much different today.
Then there were also flocks of passenger pigeons so large that they darkened the sky and when landing often broke the branches of roost trees. When their nestlings began fledging there was a big nutritional feast for predatory wildlife, and for people...
and when the breeding season was over, the area beneath the trees was covered in fertilizer, and subsequently grew excellent forage for deer, elk, and bison. There were enormous stands of beech nut trees and further east, chestnut trees.
There were also the plague of swarms of locusts in the West on the plains.
Much of the Eastern US was covered in vast stands of river cane rather than trees and it was excellent forage for grazers. One of these great stands was in Kentucky with a salt lick in it which drew herds of bison to it. In this salt lick were found loads of ancient bones showing the site had for thousands of years before had drawn giant ground sloths too, and mastodon.
And there were raucous flocks of colorful Carolina conures/ parakeets, a parrot that looked similar to Jenday Conures.
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