America's official mammal, the bison, gets a bronze tribute for the country's 250th birthday

(ksl.com March, 22, 2026)

The national mammal of the United States is getting in on America's 250th birthday celebration.

Three bison statues cast in bronze have taken up a permanent display outside the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington. The pieces — which are larger than real-life bison — made their public debut in the nation's capital on Friday.

The bison earned its official status as the nation's mammal under a law signed by former President Barack Obama in 2016. Millions of bison once roamed the Great Plains but were nearly driven to extinction in the 1800s.

"It's a wonderful story of conservation working, it's a story of people seeing a need and getting behind that to conserve an animal that is specific to North America," said Gary Staab, a paleoartist who made the statues.

Staab designed and sculpted the statues in Kearney, Missouri, where he works full-time to create sculptures of animals and historical artifacts for museums around the world. For the bison, Staab sculpted the full-size statues in foam and clay before they were cast in bronze and assembled at a foundry in Colorado. The three statues depict a bull, a cow and a calf.

He said it took about four months to complete the sculptures — a time frame he called "lighting fast" given the size of the pieces.

"They really represent a really unbelievably beautiful and unique thing about North America," Staab said.

https://www.ksl.com/article/americas-official-mammal-the-bison-gets-a-bronze-tribute-for-the-countrys-250th-birthday/51471448

 

'Pure' herd of bison living in Utah

(ksl.com December 16, 2015)

A four-footed remnant of the wild, wild West lives on in a remote mountain range in southern Utah.

New genetic tests confirm what has long been suspected: a herd of bison in the Henry Mountains is one of the few surviving populations of pure American plains bison, a species that once dominated the Great Plains and the western United States by the millions.

"When I say 'pure' I mean bison that have not been contaminated with cattle genes," said professor Johan du Toit of Utah State University's Department of Wildland Resources. "Most of the bison that are around today, particularly those on private land, are hybrids."

The absence of cattle genes is not due to a lack of cross-breeding opportunities. The Henry Mountains bison roam freely in an area south of Hanksville where domestic ranch cattle also graze under permits from the Bureau of Land Management. In spite of that close proximity, it appears there has been no inter-breeding in the seven decades the bison have been there.

-Brucellosis-

Perhaps just as important: The Henry Mountains bison herd shows no signs of brucellosis. That disease has sparked decades of conflict with ranchers near Yellowstone National Park as purebred bison there have wandered out of the park in wintertime.

Now that the Utah herd is shown to be not only purebred but disease-free, the herd could play a primary role in bringing back a magnificent species that was nearly wiped out in the 1800s.

"The Henry Mountains bison have been an enigmatic population of bison in North America for a long time," du Toit said.

The vast bison herds of ancient North America — often called "buffalo" by nonscientists — were hunted nearly to extinction in just a few years in the late 1800s. The Yellowstone herd descended from just a few survivors. Later, a few Yellowstone bison were transplanted to Utah and turned loose in a remote desert area called Robber's Roost about 50 miles from the Henry Mountains.

-History of the herd-

"They were brought down from Yellowstone in the 1940s," du Toit said, "and they made their way, on their own, into the Henry Mountains, which is land that is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. So that's public land."

Hundreds of thousands of bison live around the country in various public and private settings, du Toit said, but nearly all of them carry cattle genes. Even the well-known bison on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake have domestic cattle as ancestors, according to du Toit. The hybrids around the country mostly resulted from cross-breeding experiments by ranchers who hoped to combine the toughness of bison with the docility of cattle.

It's well-known that bison will cross-breed with cattle when bulls are confined inside fences with cows. The question researchers at USU and Texas A&M University set out to answer is whether cross-breeding takes place in the wilds of the Henry Mountains, where the "buffalo" roam and where ranch cattle often sidle right up alongside them. So the researchers collected hair samples and tiny chunks of ear tissue from the skittish bison.

"We managed to get samples from 129 animals," du Toit said. "The population's about 350 animals, so we sampled about one-third of the entire population."

-No evidence of cattle DNA, disease-

The DNA findings suggest that when bison roam free and have each other to mate with, they aren't much interested in getting cozy with cows.

"We were actually able to determine that there was no evidence of cattle DNA in all of those samples," du Toit said.

It's not exactly a surprise, but it is a cause for celebration, he said. "Now we know they are genetically pure. But the other thing is that they are disease-free."

Unlike the purebred herd at Yellowstone, the Henry Mountain herd shows no signs of brucellosis, a disease that causes spontaneous abortions and can be spread to cattle and elk. It's the primary reason ranchers near Yellowstone have campaigned for bison to be killed or captured if they wander out of the national park.

-The value of a pure herd-

The disease-free, genetically-pure Utah herd could become valuable if other states use it to launch their own herds.

"It confirms that you can have bison and cattle, free ranging, together," du Toit said. "The other really good thing for Utah is that we have here an extremely valuable source of biodiversity."

Some experts have argued that restoring bison herds in some places would be good for the environment due to the "tilling" effect of bison hooves and the fertilizing properties of their dung and urine.

"In areas where bison can be introduced," du Toit said, "it's being argued by ecologists that bison are probably very important in terms of maintaining ecosystem function."

The DNA testing is part of a larger study commissioned by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. The agency is exploring the best methods for managing cattle and bison together in the same area.

https://www.ksl.com/article/37798442/study-pure-herd-of-bison-living-in-utah

Our history with bison

 

We may not have had many bullfights in the US, there have been some, but we certainly have had a history with another type of brave bull, that being the American Bison.

 

And we came dangerously close to killing every last one. In fact, in the late 1800's the number of bison left was estimated at 1000 from a population, before the western expansion of the white man, of around 30 million.

 

What ultimately saved the bison? (Even though in way bison are still in a difficult situation with a lack of wide open space left for them to roam.)

 

The government, native Americans, conservationists, and ranchers. The later raising the animal to sell for its prized meat.

 

What parallels are there between the American bison and the Spanish fighting bull? Many, but I will let you come to your own conclusions.

 

 

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What brought bison back from the brink of extinction?

 

 

 (by Cristen Conger howstuffworks.com)

 

Before the West was won, tens of millions of bison dominated the American landscape. Their pre-colonial range spanned almost the entire United States, with a concentration in the Great Plains, extending from Canada to northern Mexico. Bison -- commonly known as buffalo -- congregated in thundering herds, grazing on thousands of acres of virgin grasslands. Vegetation on the Plains was well suited to the bison diet because the grasses' roots are packed with vitamins and minerals to allow for swift regrowth [source: Savage]. During that time, Native American tribes across the Great Plains hunted bison, using the enormous bovines for food, clothing and shelter materials, tools and more [source: Allen].

Two bison species are native to North America: plains bison and wood bison. Weighing nearly a ton, bison are the largest land mammals in the United States [source: Sample]. Despite their size, bison can sprint at speeds up to 35 mph (56 kph) [source: National Park Service]. Although they only feed on grass, bison are a keystone species in the Plains, meaning their influence in the environment affects the well-being of many other species.

But in the 1700s, the horse's arrival in the West sparked the bison's demise in North America. Riding horses and the invention of the .50-caliber rifle transformed buffalo hunting from low casualty affairs to all-out massacres [source: Cloud]. At the beginning of the 19th century, the market for buffalo hide boomed in the United States and Canada as well as Europe. The combination of efficient hunting methods and a growing demand set the stage for the period dating from roughly 1820 to 1880, known as "the Great Slaughter."

Hunters slaughtered bison across the Great Plains by the thousands, slicing the population from 30 million to just over 1,000 by 1890 [source: American Bison Society]. Because they became so scarce and bison extinction seemed imminent, Theodore Roosevelt, William Hornaday and other men formed the American Bison Society in 1905 to ensure the species' survival. By that point, the Bronx Zoo and Yellowstone National Park had also established bison preserves, and in 1908, the federal government created the National Bison Range in Montana. Ironically, these conservation efforts wouldn't become the driving force behind the bison population comeback.

Although their numbers shrank to a perilously small figure at the end of the 19th century due to overhunting, bison weren't federally classified as an endangered species in the United States. Instead, private and public conservation efforts gradually nudged their population upward, with the greatest increase occurring in the last 40 years.

Nevertheless, the U.S. wild bison population today is less than one percent of what it was in pre-colonial times, hovering at around 20,000 animals. North America is home to only five free-ranging plains bison herds and eight wood bison herds [source: World Conservation Union Bison Specialist Group]. But it isn't for lack of trying.

Public bison preservation efforts began in 1907 when 15 were relocated to New York's Bronx Zoo. Yellowstone National Park had only a few dozen bison roaming on its land at that time. Offspring from that initial group would later be relocated to protected areas in Oklahoma, Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska [source: Wildlife Conservation Society]. Native American tribes have also contributed to repopulation efforts in recent years. In 1990, tribes around South Dakota met to form the InterTribal Bison Cooperative, and today the group is comprised of 57 member tribes that oversee 15,000 heads of bison.

A handful of factors have inhibited more robust bison population growth. Perhaps most influential is the sheer lack of space. Bison are prairie grazers, and much of their native land has been developed. Because the existing bison herds have remained relatively small, that has also diminished the diversity of the bison gene pool. Once that happens, inbreeding can increase the rate of health problems in a herd.

Speaking of health problems, a virus called brucellosis plagues wild bison, particularly those in Yellowstone National Park. Brucellosis causes female bison to abort their babies and reduces fertility and milk production. In addition, people can catch it from eating tainted meat and develop prolonged flulike symptoms [source: USDA]. As a result of the virus and the animal's naturally unpredictable behavior, more than 3,700 bison that have wandered outside of Yellowstone in the past 20 years have been shot by state and federal wildlife officials [source: Martin]. Quarantine periods have delayed wild bison from being relocated to other areas in the West in order to expand the population, although the USDA plans to do so, possibly in Alaska, during winter 2008 [source: The Economist].

Ironically, commercial breeding has had a greater impact boosting bison numbers, and more than 95 percent of bison are privately owned. People began breeding herds of bison in captivity as early as 1870 [source: Lott and Greene]. Then, in the 1970s, ranchers started buying more bison to build up a niche meat market [source: Cloud]. From a financial standpoint, investing in bison is a thrifty move for ranchers since the grass grazers don't require costly feed and their meat is low in fat and cholesterol. According to the USDA, the bison market has gradually expanded in the United States, from less than 18,000 commercial bison slaughtered for sale in 2000 to around 50,000 in 2007. Thanks to the growing demand, there are around 400,000 commercial bison living in the United States.

Granted, commercial bison are raised in order to be killed later, so it doesn't exactly constitute a resurgence in pure conservationist terms. Nevertheless, it has raised the profile of the bison and triggered a newfound appreciation for the animal -- even if it is an appreciation for how it tastes.

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https://animals.howstuffworks.com/endangered-species/bison-extinction.htm