Bison, like many species, have come a long way since the dawn of time. Bison have grown along side humans and humans took advantage of the bison to near extinction. Now bison have been struggling to survive but are luckily still around today but not in every place it used to be. The history of bison go far back to when species are still young on land.
To start back in the beginning, bison came from the bovine family. It is a genetic family that mostly make up animals that resemble the common cow or have cow features, including horns, hooves, rough skin, etc. According to Kathleen O’Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear, both are archaeologist for the state of Kansas and Wyoming, believe that “Bison and cattle have a common ancestry that begins around nine million years ago in Europe with the appearance of an animal called Parabos” The parabos was in the bovine family. This animal's origin location is unclear but some fossils located in Spain, Hungary, Italy and Romania can be a more precise indication of where is originated. I think this makes sense because scientifically, it is said animals came form the water and evolved. Those countries are near water which can also explain how water buffalo may have started to evolve. Kathleen O’Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear continue on the interest of parabos by saying that about four million years ago, the parabos “...gave rise to proleptobos, an animal that is the direct ancestor of Bos and Bison.” This gives more insight on the bison and shows that they likely have originated from China. The parabos on the other hand likely spread all the way to the China area. From the proleptobos, the bison split from that animal about 2 million years ago. It was roaming all around Europe and Asia a...
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BBC, “Denmark's Bornholm island gets rare bison from Poland” BBC.com. June 7, 2012. BBC. Web. March 30, 2014.
Gear, Kathleen O’Neal and Gear, W. Michael. “A Brief Look at the Evolution of Bison” lindnerbison. August 2010. Kathleen O’Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear. Web. March 30, 2014.
Kuemmerle, Tobias. “Predicting potential European bison habitat across its former range” Ecological Applications. April 2011 vol. 21. pg 830-835. JSTOR. Web. March 30, 2014
Pucek, Zdzislaw. European Bison (Bison Bonasus): Current State of the Species and Strategy for Its Conservation. Strasbourg. Council of Europe. 2004. Print.
The causes of rising conservation include overhunting, recognizing its importance. These newfound awareness results in new policies that preserve everyone equally. When people started to see the decline of wildlife animals including bison and many colorful birds it caused a rise in conservation. A cause of the extermination of bison is “From the Great Slave Lake to the Rio Grande, the home of the buffalo was everywhere overrun by the man with a gun; and, as had ever been the case, the wild creatures were gradually swept away, the largest and most conspicuous forms being the first to go. ”(Doc.2)
However, the issues that the southern Plains tribes faced did not end there: intensive pastoralism brought on negative environmental impacts that led to the decline of the bison population.
In order to better understand these "implications," it is necessary to define and explain the major theories regarding North American megafaunal extinction. The two most widely supported theories are those of environmental change and overkill. Two theories finding less support within the field are those of hyperdisease and "keystone herbivores."
Rubensteina, D.R., Rubensteinb, D.I., Shermana, P.W., Gavic T.A., 2006. Pleistocene Park: Does re-wilding North America represent sound conservation for the 21st century? Biological conservation 132, 232-238.
One species famously affected by these pioneers and settlers was the American Bison, a relic of the last ice age. It is estimated that over 40 million of these great beasts roamed the American Plains in 1800. By 1883 the population was down to less than 6001. What happened? Why did those pioneers, so appreciative of the bounty that the “new” territory had given them, slaughter the bison throughout the 19th century?
Rapidly evolving throughout the late Pleistocene to the early to mid Holocene, hunter-gatherer-fisher societies hunted megafauna creatures in a systematic and ethical way. When one species migrates to a different ecosystem, that species is not usually recognized as a threat to other species. Survival, during the late Pleistocene and Holocene era, was one of the most important aspects to life. Any organism, regardless of size, living within their environment had to stay alive and reproduce. During these two eras, it seems...
Once the gray wolf population had declined in the National Park, many ecological impacts were observed. Without a sustainable wolf population in the park, the elk population began to take over and increase in size. Due to this increase in elk, many of the deciduous woody species began to become overgrazed. With the e...
Bison were considered a main part of the American economy. Prior to the Civil War, hunters would trade and sell buffalo hide. Although some were killed for meat, buffalo hide was in higher demand. However, after the Civil War, the extensions of the railroads made it easier to transport hides. The main desiccation of the bison came with the industrial revolution (Manning, WWW). Since machinery became a mainstay in factories, part of maintenance required belting. The demand of hide of bison, therefore, increased since buffalo hide could be used as belts that would drive the machines (Manning, WWW). Within a few decades only a thousand bison were left, after the slaughter of 50 million. The depletion of bison did however spark an interest in conservation and protec...
Wyden, Adrian. “The History of Wolves in Wisconsin.” State of Wisconsin/Department of Natural Resources. n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2012.
"In the Valley of the Wolves Reintroduction of the Wolves." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/in-the-valley-of-the-wolves/reintroduction-of-the-wolves/213/.
The author provides information describing the deer population in parts of New Jersey; yet, he does not include any data regarding the population in the rest of the United States, nor does he include any sources of where this information was obtained. A reader may be more
Although most horses today are domesticated, in certain countries there are endangered populations of wild horses, including the Przewalski’s horse, found in Central Asia (The Foundation for the Preservation and Protection of the Przewalski Horse, 2008).
...climatize and adapt, For example Wood Bison with only 130 left down from 168,000 in Canada in the late 1800s. It is very difficult for this animal to repopulate itself as their breeding patterns are so slow, humans are trying to reintroduce a heard that will breed and repopulate. This shows that animals will not be able to introduce themselves to the habitat easily and will need a lot of help from outside sources. The moose does not have to fear from new predators entering into its territory as there are high barriers to enter.
"Zoos: Myth and Reality." Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale, July 2000. Web. 10 Nov. 2011.
Sikes, Roberts. and William L. Gannon. "Guidelines of the American Society of Mammalogists for the Use of Wild Mammals in Research." Journal of Mammalogy 92.1 (Feb. 2011): 235-253. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 5 Oct. 2011.