BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Zoological Park -- American Bison

DC -- Natl Zoological Park -- American Bison:

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. SINZBI_190607_11.JPG: American Bison Bos bison No one knows just how big a single bison herd used to be, but estimates are anywhere from 4-12 million individuals.
2. SINZBI_190607_15.JPG: What's the Big Deal about Bison? The bison effect Bison eat grasses -- lots and lots of grasses. As bison munch their way across grasslands, they create habitat for other animals. Birds nest where bison have grazed and hunt insects among the exposed grasses. Prairie dogs build colonies where bison have cut down grasses. Black-footed ferrets then come in search of the prairie dogs, their favorite prey.
3. SINZBI_190607_18.JPG: Bison have a big impact on the landscape.
4. SINZBI_190607_20.JPG: Giving a helping "hoof" to the little guys
5. SINZBI_190607_22.JPG: Are They Bison or Buffalo? Depends on whom you ask. Scientifically, American bison are not buffalo; true "buffalo" are only found in Africa. Culturally, the names bison and buffalo are both correct. When European explorers first came to North America, they called the giant creatures a variety of names -- including bisonte, buffes and buffles. As our culture developed, the name buffalo stuck. Today, both names are accepted.
6. SINZBI_190607_27.JPG: And Then There Were (Almost) None How many bison once roamed North America? A good estimate is that roughly 30 million bison once roamed the grasslands of North America. To the explorers Lewis and Clark, the herds "darkened the whole plains." What happened? People. Massive hunting campaigns brought an end to the seemingly endless herds. Growth of farming and ranching and severe drought caused even more loss.
7. SINZBI_190607_30.JPG: A "bullish" economy Bison were a staple of the economy in the 1800s. As Americans became more industrial, the need for machine belts made from hides grew and grew. Sport-hunting also became the rage. Railroad companies offered tourists a chance to shoot bison from the coaches; one record-setting rider killed as many as 120 animals in 40 minutes. Within 50 years, the great herds were gone.
8. SINZBI_190607_33.JPG: Pile of bison skulls (c. 1870)
9. SINZBI_190607_38.JPG: Time to stop "bullying" around! By the late 1800s, about 325 wild bison were left. Congress began to take action to protect the remaining bison, and private ranchers started to create small herds. Slowly, the population crept up thanks to legal protection, refuges and breeding programs. Today about 30,000 bison live in conservation herds and hundreds of thousands live on private ranches. Efforts to bring back massive herds will take time, land an a strong commitment to the recovery of this treasured animal.
10. SINZBI_190607_40.JPG: Bison and the National Zoo From collector to conservationist A park becomes a zoo.
11. SINZBI_190607_49.JPG: Bison and the Land Bison were a means to an end.
12. SINZBI_190607_51.JPG: Working together to save a species
13. SINZBI_190607_57.JPG: Helping the animals helps the land.
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Description of Subject Matter: American Bison
August 30, 2014 – Permanent
See American bison—the animal that inspired the founding of the National Zoo. Learn about the significant role bison played in our nation's history and the efforts taken to bring the species back from the brink of extinction.
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Directly Related Pages: Other pages with content (DC -- Natl Zoological Park -- American Bison) directly related to this one: [Display ALL photos on one page]:
- 2021_DC_SINZ_Bison: DC -- Natl Zoological Park -- American Bison (1 photo from 2021)
- 2016_DC_SINZ_Bison: DC -- Natl Zoological Park -- American Bison (4 photos from 2016)
Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [(Smithsonian) National Zoo (Everything)] [(Smithsonian) National Zoo (Non-Events)] [Zoos]
2019 photos: Equipment this year: I continued to use my Fuji XS-1 cameras but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000. Trips this year: a four-day jaunt to Massachusetts (Boston, Stockbridge, and Springfield) to experience rain in another state, Asheville, NC to visit Dad and his wife Dixie, four trips to New York City (including the United Nations, Flushing, and the New York Comic-Con), and my 14th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con (including sites in Utah). Number of photos taken this year: about 582,000.
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