American Bison 

They have been hunted close to the point of extinction. In the early and late 1800s the ‘American Bison’, was the continents largest land mammal. The killing sparked of in the early 1800s and went rampant in the late 1800s. The American Bison, was hunted for its tender meat, hide and simply for the fun of seeing the poor animal hit the ground. The so called ‘Commercial Hunters’ took the killing of the Bison as a treat, thus they shifted their attention to other animals, such as Elks, deer’s and moose. With the continuation of the activity, several people mainly conservationists decided, it was enough and something had to be done in order to save this iconic animal. “Over the last 100 years, hunters and conservationists have done a tremendous job in this country of recovering elk, deer, pronghorn and other large mammals,” says NWF President Larry Schweiger. “Working primarily through state fish and wildlife agencies, we have restored most of our big-game populations—an incredible achievement. But we still have one major species to go, the American bison.” Thus an area has been reserved for the ‘American Bison’ in Missouri. The area is 125 miles long, with half a million acres of short grassland, which are mostly prairie. Most of the Bison population resides close or at the Yellowstone National park. But due to the cold weather, most bison’s tend to move to areas where it’s warm, with plenty of grass. Conservationists are struggling to maintain the population, keep and breed pure ‘American Bison’s’. So far there are close to 5000 Bison’s that are existing in the wild, national parks and reserve areas.