THE AMERICAN BISON

All throughout grade school I was teased for always blurting out my favorite animal was the North American Bison. This was confusing as I always saw these gigantic mammals as a force of nature, and still do today.

Bison are an elegantly powerful beast once known to rule the American plains in numbers of 20-30 millions. That is until assholes swept in and had the species knocked down to 541 total animals by 1889… They did this in only 60 years of killing for hides and meat.

Lucky conservation efforts have brought that total up to nearly 500,000 bison across North America today. However, these animals are still near threatened on the extinction list.

As over half of their vast habitats are overtaken for crops and farming they are forced to grow on protected grasslands and National Parks. The good side about this news is that their numbers are still slowly on the rise.

I hope to see more species like this striving in the near future. The earth, it’s habitats, and it’s animals need your help.