[Leica] Re: Bison in the snow

[lrzeitlin at optonline.net (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

I have received several e-mails doubting my assertion that most of  
the Western bison are descended from bison from the Bronx, NY. Here  
is the story:

William T. Hornaday, the first director of the Bronx Zoo, had a deep  
interest in the American bison and chose to make them the first  
conservation success story in the New York Zoological Society's  
history. Once numbering 50 million in North America, bison had been  
decimated by hunting and westward expansion. In October 1899,  
Hornaday acquired bison for the Bronx Zoo and began to build the zoo  
herd. In 1905, with fewer than 1,000 American bison left in the wild,  
the NY Zoological Society sponsored the founding of the American  
Bison Society at the Bronx Zoo. With Hornaday as the bison groups  
president, the organization was instrumental in securing national  
protection for the bison and rangeland for the establishment of new  
herds. In 1907, 15 of the Bronx Zoo bison were shipped to Oklahomas  
Wichita Mountain Preserve. Subsequently, bison were provided for  
other refuges in Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska. Gradually, the  
western herds grew and the bison population rebounded. Most of todays  
bison in the western U.S. are descendents of those Bronx Zoo animals  
shipped at the turn of the 20th century.

By the way, the cross between the American Bison (Buffalo) and the  
domestic cow is called the Beefalo, and is both lean and tasty. How  
about a photo essay on the Beefalo in the snow?

Larry Z