Queens Zoo News
Pioneer Visions
A Legacy of Bison Conservation, 1896–2006
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The American Bison Society, with President Theodore Roosevelt as its honorary president, was founded in 1905 at the Bronx Zoo’s Lion House.
©WCS
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Westward ho! In 1907, 15 Bronx Zoo bison boarded railway cars and wagon trains headed for Oklahoma’s Wichita Mountain Preserve. These early pioneers were charged with an historic mission: to help the American bison recover on the Western Plains. Where millions of bison had once roamed, only a handful remained in the American West at the turn of the century. Hunting and westward expansion had driven them to the brink of extinction. The founders of WCS created the American Bison Society (ABS) to restore this national icon, and they did: Today, 20,000 wild bison roam the Western Plains. This population has its roots in the bison bred at the Bronx Zoo that were used to re-stock refuges in Oklahoma, Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska—many of which WCS helped to create. The herds of Yellowstone and other national parks still share a family tree with those at the Bronx and Queens Zoos.
Keeping the Prairie Alive
The return of wild bison to the Great Plains has meant good news for many other native species. Through their foraging behaviors, bison keep grasslands healthy as they graze on meadow sedges, trample weeds, and help prune plants. They also fertilize the soil with their droppings and till it with their hooves. Prairie dogs rely on bison herds to trim prairie grass patches down to just the right height for a dog town. The intensive and sporadic grazing of bison encourages many other iconic American wildlife species, too, including snowy owls, mountain plovers, and black-footed ferrets, which feed primarily on prairie dogs.
Though bison have bounced back on the American range, now numbering almost half a million, much of the population exists as livestock on commercial ranches. Some of these commercial herds are given ample space to roam, enabling them to contribute in positive ways to the prairie ecosystem. But others are confined to small spaces, causing them to overgraze the lands on which they’re kept. Today, WCS and other conservation organizations are reaching out to bison ranchers to help them develop husbandry practices that satisfy economic needs while simultaneously nurturing the landscape we treasure. Bison Forever
One hundred years after the ABS was founded, the Wildlife Conservation Society is building on its legacy in bison conservation by creating long-term plans for the species’ ecological recovery. The goal is to restore viable herds of bison across western North America, which will in turn help bring back a full complement of native wildlife to the range. Conservationists and non-governmental organizations, stakeholder industries and ranchers, government agencies and Native American tribes will meet at a public conference in Denver in October to discuss how to achieve this goal during the next century. Making room for our continent’s largest land mammal to roam free again will be a challenge. But when given a chance, these hearty creatures have proven their heft time and again. With our help, bison can make a comeback.
