Dale F. Lott
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520233386
- eISBN:
- 9780520930742
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520233386.003.0024
- Subject:
- Biology, Natural History and Field Guides
Andy Hodge was the first superintendent of the National Bison Range, the first refuge created specifically to prevent wild bison from becoming extinct. Conservation then was mostly a matter of making ...
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Andy Hodge was the first superintendent of the National Bison Range, the first refuge created specifically to prevent wild bison from becoming extinct. Conservation then was mostly a matter of making sure the few animals that remained were not lost to poachers. Samuel Walking Coyote wasn't the first man to keep calves and sell bison. As early as 1870 a few men had captured a few calves and let them breed. In those days, private ownership was the bison's best chance for survival. At the National Bison Range, success in the first stage of conserving bison eventually brought the welcome problem of too many bison. More than 90 percent of the bison in North America today are undergoing domestication.Less
Andy Hodge was the first superintendent of the National Bison Range, the first refuge created specifically to prevent wild bison from becoming extinct. Conservation then was mostly a matter of making sure the few animals that remained were not lost to poachers. Samuel Walking Coyote wasn't the first man to keep calves and sell bison. As early as 1870 a few men had captured a few calves and let them breed. In those days, private ownership was the bison's best chance for survival. At the National Bison Range, success in the first stage of conserving bison eventually brought the welcome problem of too many bison. More than 90 percent of the bison in North America today are undergoing domestication.
Dale Lott
Jan van Wagtendonk and Kevin Shaffer (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520233386
- eISBN:
- 9780520930742
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520233386.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Natural History and Field Guides
This book combines the latest scientific information and one man's personal experience in an homage to one of the most magnificent animals to have roamed America's vast, vanished grasslands. The book ...
More
This book combines the latest scientific information and one man's personal experience in an homage to one of the most magnificent animals to have roamed America's vast, vanished grasslands. The book relates what is known about this iconic animal's life in the wild and its troubled history with humans. The book takes us on a journey into the bison's past and shares a compelling vision for its future, offering along the way a valuable introduction to North American prairie ecology. The book acquaints us with the social life and physiology of the bison, sharing stories about its impressive physical prowess and fascinating relationships. Describing the entire grassland community in which the bison live, it talks about the wolves, pronghorn, prairie dogs, grizzly bears, and other animals and plants, detailing the interdependent relationships among these inhabitants of a lost landscape. The book also traces the long and dramatic relationship between the bison and Native Americans, and gives a surprising look at the history of the hide hunts that delivered the coup de grace to the already dwindling bison population in a few short years. This book gives us a peek at the rich and unique ways of life that evolved in the heart of America. The book also dismantles many of the myths we have created about these ways of life, and about the bison in particular, to reveal the animal itself: ruminating, reproducing, and rutting in its full glory. This portrait of the bison ultimately becomes a plea to conserve its wildness and an eloquent meditation on the importance of the wild in our lives.Less
This book combines the latest scientific information and one man's personal experience in an homage to one of the most magnificent animals to have roamed America's vast, vanished grasslands. The book relates what is known about this iconic animal's life in the wild and its troubled history with humans. The book takes us on a journey into the bison's past and shares a compelling vision for its future, offering along the way a valuable introduction to North American prairie ecology. The book acquaints us with the social life and physiology of the bison, sharing stories about its impressive physical prowess and fascinating relationships. Describing the entire grassland community in which the bison live, it talks about the wolves, pronghorn, prairie dogs, grizzly bears, and other animals and plants, detailing the interdependent relationships among these inhabitants of a lost landscape. The book also traces the long and dramatic relationship between the bison and Native Americans, and gives a surprising look at the history of the hide hunts that delivered the coup de grace to the already dwindling bison population in a few short years. This book gives us a peek at the rich and unique ways of life that evolved in the heart of America. The book also dismantles many of the myths we have created about these ways of life, and about the bison in particular, to reveal the animal itself: ruminating, reproducing, and rutting in its full glory. This portrait of the bison ultimately becomes a plea to conserve its wildness and an eloquent meditation on the importance of the wild in our lives.
Dale F. Lott
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520233386
- eISBN:
- 9780520930742
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520233386.003.0013
- Subject:
- Biology, Natural History and Field Guides
A pronghorn is picky — and has to be. Small bodies need less food, but they also need better food: more protein, fewer carbohydrates, less lignin. The pronghorns' perspective on forbs makes their ...
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A pronghorn is picky — and has to be. Small bodies need less food, but they also need better food: more protein, fewer carbohydrates, less lignin. The pronghorns' perspective on forbs makes their relationship to a grassland very different from the bison's. For the bison, it's just grass going on forever, but for the pronghorn there are patches of forbs growing among the grasses. Pronghorn territoriality on the National Bison Range seems to have died a demographic death in 1978–79. But in most species in most situations, the abundance and distribution of food are crucial determinants of territoriality.Less
A pronghorn is picky — and has to be. Small bodies need less food, but they also need better food: more protein, fewer carbohydrates, less lignin. The pronghorns' perspective on forbs makes their relationship to a grassland very different from the bison's. For the bison, it's just grass going on forever, but for the pronghorn there are patches of forbs growing among the grasses. Pronghorn territoriality on the National Bison Range seems to have died a demographic death in 1978–79. But in most species in most situations, the abundance and distribution of food are crucial determinants of territoriality.
