Bison/Buffalo

About 150 years ago, nearly 30 million bison roamed the Great Plains until a mass slaughter began in the early 1800s. By the late 1880s, fewer than 1,000 bison remained. Bison, a keystone species, help create habitat on the Great Plains for many different species, including grassland birds and even many plant species. As bison forage, they aerate the soil with their hooves, which aids in plant growth, and disperse native seeds, helping to maintain a healthy and balanced ecosystem. Over the last decade, the conservation community has contributed significantly to bison conservation, helping to bring back America’s national mammal. Because there are no longer millions of animals migrating across the plains, the bison is considered ecologically extinct but conservation herds of 1,000 or more bison are being established to create a metapopulation, allowing for the species to once again play an important ecological role on our prairie grasslands. To learn more please visit Defenders of Wildlife. Please consider supporting the American Prairie Reserve in their efforts to bring back our Bison. Visit the Buffalo Field Campaign and learn about their efforts to protect out Yellowstone National Park Bison.