WEBVTT - What Saved the American Bison 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff You Should Know? 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:16.400 From House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:20.120 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:23.800 and that makes this stuff you should Know the big 0:00:23.840 --> 0:00:28.040 wooly addition. Yeah, I'm kind of excited about this one. Yeah, man, 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:31.440 we've seen one of those before. We're talking about bison's 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:33.840 by the way, Yeah, I thought you might bring that up. Yeah, 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:37.199 we we saw one at that animal preserve. There was 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:39.879 like a bear and a bison and they were fighting. 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:44.520 This little depressing next year, but they are supposedly rescued animals. 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:49.640 Um at this animal petting zoo, this wild game petting zoo. 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:52.160 And that was a smart bison because he had learned 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:55.240 to go to the little shoot where you would put 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:59.320 his food. And wasn't he doing something too? He's manipulating 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:01.480 it somehow sounds like it, or he was trying to 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:04.040 manipulate us into giving him some food. I can't remember 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:08.000 there's some manipulation involved, because I remember thinking like, huh, 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:14.479 bisons are very manipulative animals. Jerks. I have a story 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:16.119 for you to start this one. If you like that. 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:20.120 That sounds great, Chuck. Have I ever told you about 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:25.640 my one glorious football story. I've heard little bits about 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:28.000 your football experience, that you were a bigger kids. He 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:32.119 played on the line, and that's about all I can remember. Okay, Well, 0:01:32.440 --> 0:01:35.600 as a child, I went to Beverly Elementary School and 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:39.480 I played football for them. Uh And the way it 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:42.840 was in Toledo was you would play for your elementary 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:47.520 schools team when you got the middle school. Interesting, so 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:50.000 you could play your last year of elementary school sixth grade, 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:52.400 but then you could keep playing through seventh and eighth grade, 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:56.040 but it was for your elementary school. It was weird. 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:59.240 But so I played for Beverly Elementary, which meant I 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:02.600 was Beverly Iison. And I was probably the kid on 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:04.560 the team that must resemble the Bison because I was 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:08.840 a pretty big, fat kid and I was aligneman. And um, 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:11.960 I sucked at football because no one ever explained any 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:15.119 strategy to me. It wasn't until college that I understood 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:18.839 that football even had strategy. Old technique, Yeah, I thought 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:21.799 it was just like block that guy right right. Um, 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:24.880 So I didn't teach you to swim, move nothing. They 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:27.160 taught me nothing. It was literally like just stand there 0:02:27.160 --> 0:02:30.120 and don't let that guy through. That's what I was taught. 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:35.119 Failed by all coaches. Um. Anyway, I did have one 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:38.360 shining moment. Right I was eighth grade. I was third string. 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:41.360 We were playing the Colts. I can't remember what school, 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:44.360 but they were the worst team, and uh we were. 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:46.600 We had the game in hand and the Colts were 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:49.280 all like just three and a half foot tall, little 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:52.360 pint sized kids. So we had the game in hand. Um, 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:53.880 it was late in the game and they put me 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:57.880 in as a defensive lineman. Right to you're the biggest 0:02:57.880 --> 0:02:59.760 guy on the team and your third string. I am 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:02.000 at this point the biggest guy on the field. But yes, 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:07.120 I was third strict grade two. Um, so they at 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:08.600 this point in the biggest guy in the field and 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:11.680 they put me in and um, and I'm I'm like, 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:14.160 I pointed to the quarterback. I'm like, I'm gonna I'm 0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:17.720 coming for you. They put two guys on me. Right 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:22.320 the quarterback hikes the ball. He's he's appropriately nervous because 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:24.880 I'm staring at him. He knows like I'm gonna get 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:26.360 to him. One way or the other. This is like 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:29.359 my my last chance, right, these two guys come at me, 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:32.320 these two offensive linemen. I just grabbed both of the 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:35.160 bachelor helmets and just push him down, like right underneath, 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:37.720 but go right through him. Yeah. I don't like after 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:39.320 this is the coach, You're like, maybe we should put 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:42.640 this kid in, you know, earlier in the season. Anyway, 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:45.320 I um, I push. I just get through both of 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:48.240 the guys who are who are on me? I go, 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:51.760 is it? Well, that's what I did. I go right 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:55.120 to the quarterback, didn't tackle him. I picked him up 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:58.560 and threw him down. I didn't even like stagger. I 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:00.880 just picked the just kid up and through them. And 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:03.000 I turned around. I was like, yeah, you know what 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:05.120 I didn't know is I caused a fumble and one 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:06.720 of our guys picked up and ran it in for 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:09.960 a touchdown. I didn't find out until after that the 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:12.280 play was over. So your line cheat that day was 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:16.280 once one play, one sack, one force fumble. Yeah that's awesome. Yeah, 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:19.839 and a touchdown as a result of the fumbles. So 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:23.919 that was my big story as Beverly Bison. And that 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:27.080 is the the the intro. I guess you could say 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:30.960 to this, what happened to bring the Bisons back from 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:33.080 the verge of extinction. I think that might have helped 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:35.359 the cause. I think it did too. Perhaps I've always 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:39.800 had an infinity affinity for Bisons ever since playing for 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:44.440 the Beverly Bisons. But I think we should probably start out, chuck, 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:48.200 what what's Some people might be like, I've heard a buffalo, 0:04:48.279 --> 0:04:50.479 but I don't know what a bison is. Well, if 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:53.720 you've heard of a buffalo and you're an American, you've 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:57.560 heard a bison, pal you're confused. That's right right here 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:00.640 in the States, they're bison. Technically, they're pretty in are changeably. 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:04.000 You know, you can call him a buffalo. But technically 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:07.280 a buffalo is a cape buffalo or water buffalo, and 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:10.400 they're native to Africa and Asia. The bison's native to 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:15.880 here in the United States, North America typically specifically, and 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:21.680 the word buffalo comes from the French. Seventeenth century explorers 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:27.880 encountered these things and said, let both what is that beef? 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:33.240 It means oxen or beeves whatever, beavis be e e 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:38.320 v e s is what I said, Okay, And then uh, 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:41.320 the English folks arrive later and change it to La 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:46.039 buff and then Buffalo, then Buffaler, than Buffio and eventually 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:49.120 they settled on Buffalo. So that's where we're at now, 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:51.640 that's where right now. But so they're both members of 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:56.200 the Boviday family. UM, and they're very much related. But yes, 0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:58.920 one lives in Asia and Africa, one lives in North America. 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:03.120 And we've got two um types of buffalo or bison 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:06.280 I'm sorry. In North America. We've got the wood bison, 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:09.359 which is the smaller the two, and then the planes bison, 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:12.880 which is the big, the big daddy. Yeah. And they 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:14.560 you know, if you've ever seen the one with the 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:20.160 big hump, that's the wood bison. The planes bison has 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:24.279 the flat back, more distinctive cape, and a more well 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:27.200 developed beard in throat main. Is that right? So the 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:30.240 one with the big hump is the wood bison because 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:33.320 the hump from ground to hump can get up to 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:37.479 like six ft tall. Yeah, that's huge. Uh. Let's talk 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:42.200 numbers first, like sheer numbers. UM. In two thousand seven 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:46.440 they did a bison census and the number on private 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:51.360 ranches was add to thirty four. That is significantly more 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:55.640 than it was a century earlier. UM. About two d 0:06:55.760 --> 0:07:00.279 and twenty thousand in Canada, and about twenty and of 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:03.960 these bison in the United States and Canada are roaming 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:07.120 free on public land, and close to a half a 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:13.400 million total herd in North America today. But at one point, 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:20.120 the chuck in about eight there were maybe in all 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:25.040 of North America five hundred of these things five hundred, 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:29.559 and those five hundred were federally protected on federally protected land. 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:35.800 Prior to that, say, I think it was in Lost 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:41.440 Part Colorado, UH, poachers killed four bison, UH, and those 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:46.440 four represented the last unprotected free roaming bison herd in 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:49.800 the in North America and thus ended what was called 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:52.520 the Great Slaughter, which we'll get to in a second. 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:55.440 But let's go even further back to really get to 0:07:55.920 --> 0:08:01.640 to the the the point about how few five hundred 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:07.800 bison is in like say ere, you have to understand 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:12.680 how many there were in say seventeen hundred. I've seen 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:16.760 estimates is high as sixty million. That far back. Oh yeah, 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:19.440 chew on this pal I saw an estimate as high 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:24.080 as a hundred millions. Yeah, normally the accepted number UM 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:29.080 was proposed by a guy named Um Shepherd crushed the third, 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:33.320 he's an anthropologist from Brown University in he came up 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:35.920 with an estimate of thirty million. And if you're an 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:41.000 anthropologist or a wildlife biologist, or just a bison enthusiast, 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:44.640 you're probably gonna go with thirty million. At any given time, 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:50.880 there were thirty million pre European um settlement. There are 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:54.640 thirty million bison roaming North America at any given time. Well, 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:58.560 they were the largest large mammal in the United in 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:01.800 North America, the largest uh population at one point. But 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:04.600 they're also the largest physically. They were about two thousand pounds. 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:07.680 The average mail is about two thousand pounds. And they're 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:10.360 quick too. They can get up to like thirty five 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:13.480 miles an hour. Two thousand pounds thirty five miles an hour. 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:17.120 And there are thirty million of these things running around. 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:22.960 That's a ton. That's that's a lot of times tons. Yeah, 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:27.239 and they spanned They obviously made their home most abundantly 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:30.000 in the Great Plains because there was lots of great 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:35.360 virgin grassland that was packed with vitamins and minerals, which 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:37.720 allowed it to grow back really fast after it was eaten. 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:44.040 From Canada to northern Mexico, tons and tons of buffalo. So, um, 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:48.400 there's something interesting if you've read that pops up towards 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:50.240 the end of the book. I know I keep going 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:53.520 back to this well, but it is it is really wet. 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:57.920 It's a consistent thread. Um there were there. There's this 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:02.120 whole idea that what the settlers out west around the 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:05.800 plains encountered and took to be like a wild state, 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:10.280 like the natural wild state of tens of millions of 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:14.800 buffalo running everywhere, was actually a freak of nature. Right 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:19.199 that you have um an apex predator in any ecosystem, 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:21.600 and if you remove the apex predator, all the other 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:25.680 all the other UM species are allowed to just boom 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:29.360 right in on the great planes. The apex predator was 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:33.480 man human in the form of Native Americans who were 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:37.840 removed from the ecosystem, and without the Native Americans to 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:43.600 effectively manage the herb populations and the prairie lands, UH, 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:47.480 buffaloes were allowed to explode to unnatural population numbers. So 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:50.760 there's an idea that what we took and still to 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:55.040 the state consider was a natural population of thirty million 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:58.720 was actually far far less than that. Prior to the 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:03.600 Colombian exchange. Really Yeah, very interesting? Didn't that interesting? Either way? 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:07.360 They're probably about thirty million buffalo roaming the Great Planes 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:11.680 in state seventeen hundred. That number dropped dramatically starting about 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:17.559 eighteen twenty, right, yeah, with the Great Slaughter. Uh pre um, 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:20.680 Well we'll get to the horse. Pre horse. Dating back 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:25.000 to prehistoric times, there was what was known as buffalo jumps. 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:31.080 Did you see this? So buffalo jumps are were when 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:34.120 they would Native Americans would herd buffalo down these narrow 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:38.600 shoots and run them off a cliff like lemmings like lemmings, 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:40.319 and it would break their legs. I mean not such 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:42.960 a cliff that it would you know, destroy the animal completely. 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:45.720 It would just break their legs so they couldn't move. 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:47.840 And then they would you know, they had guys waiting 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:50.839 down there with spears and stuff and clubs to kill them. 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:54.040 And it was sort of like the first factory farms 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:57.400 that was where they were would get large abundance over 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:00.120 and over abundance of buffalo meat and pelts and all 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:03.280 the stuff that they use. And uh. There is today 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:08.280 in Canada a World Heritage Site called head Smashed in 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:13.280 Buffalo Jump, and it is one of the oldest and 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:17.840 largest and best preserved buffalo jumps known to exist today. 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:21.240 And if you go to their website, it has a 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:26.080 little animation of buffalo like lemmings like running and then 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:28.480 falling off a cliff, over and over and over. Right, 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:30.400 And I should also insert here that Chuck and I 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:32.920 are both fully aware that lemmings don't naturally run over 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:35.120 the cliff. That that was actually the producers of the 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:39.440 Walt Disney documentary that created that myth and drove those 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:42.600 poor lemmings over the cliff. That's true. Yeah, I'm glad 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:44.920 you said that because we heard about that. Uh So, 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:47.280 at any rate, they were buffalo jumps. That was a 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:49.960 way to get lots and lots of buffalo dead quickly. 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:52.280 And if you live in Alberta, you can go see 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:54.559 the head smashed in Buffalo Jump for a mere ten 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:57.959 dollars for an adult. And not only if you live there, 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:00.560 if you're visiting there you could do it too. That's right. 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:04.000 But the Native American had a I mean, I know 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:05.920 the white man is blamed for it, and they largely 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:09.600 are responsible for the mass slaughter, but the Comanche Indian 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:11.839 in the eighteen thirties were killing close to three hundred 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:15.920 thousand bison a year, which was not a sustainable number. Right. 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:19.160 That's actually a very hot topic. Um. You know, there's 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:23.360 the idea that the Native Americans are the noble savage um, 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:26.720 and then there's also evidence that they're not, that they weren't. 0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:30.120 There was this thing called bison overkill. Um. They also 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:32.320 believe that that's what happened to the mastodon and the 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:35.520 sabretooth tiger and that they were basically hunted to extinction 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:39.320 um by like the Clovis people, and the Clovis people 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:42.640 in turn became extinct as well. It's like a highly 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:47.240 debatable topic of over exactly what happened. But if that's true, 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:51.760 then that means that bison have always been over hunted 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:55.160 because if the Commanche were doing that, and apparently it 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:59.280 takes six to seven bison to to for a person 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:04.480 to subsist a year, six bison per person per year. Yeah, 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:07.959 but that's without agriculture, Like, that's just living on bison. 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:13.200 Can you imagine your your stool productions just like bison 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:16.079 break for the spic and the eggs bison burgers. Yeah, 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:18.520 and I would imagine your sweat smells like vinegar because 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:22.080 apparently you have a high protein, low carb diet, you 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:27.000 sweat vinegar. It is gross, believe me. The railroad industry 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:29.720 was also a great threat to the bison because the 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:32.200 bison were a threat to the railroad industry. And you 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:34.320 know who won that war. Well, there's a guy um 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:36.800 named Frank Row who who wrote a book in nineteen 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:39.760 seventy two called the North American Buffalo, and he cites 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:43.960 um a train that was headed west in eighteen fifty 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:46.080 that had to wait for three days for a herd 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:49.360 of bison to cross the track them and they weren't 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:54.160 necessarily slow moving. There's just that many bison. Um. So yeah, 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:57.520 we reached the point now where the the White Man 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:01.600 has entered the picture, the Winchester fifty aliber rifles under 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:03.680 the picture, and the horses under the picture. So all 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:07.479 of these factors that would lead to the near extinction 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:10.800 of bison have all come together and converged on the 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:13.920 Great Planes and they are about to unleash holy hell 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:19.520 on the bison population, the Great Slaughter. So do you, like, 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:21.760 have you heard about the Great Slaughter? Do you know 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:24.720 some things about it? I know that they could have 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:29.400 been potentially killing like two hundred thousand buffalo per day. 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:33.880 At one point, they had contests, Chuck, they were buffalo 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:38.080 killing contests the railroads, like you said, to get rid 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:41.760 of this bison problem. They also figured out how to 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:45.200 make money by hosting hunting expeditions where you never left 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:48.440 the train. The trainer just drives slowly and you would shoot. 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:53.680 It's also in dead Man. Oh yeah, Um, that was real. 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:57.200 They had bison killing contests. There's a man who holds 0:15:57.240 --> 0:16:01.400 the record in eighteen seventy Helo Bill. No, no, he 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:04.400 had Buffalo Bill beat A man named Thomas C. Nixon 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:07.000 of Kansas set the record in eighteen seventy, killing one 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:12.240 and twenty bison in forty minutes. Buffalo Bill supposedly killed many, 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:16.400 many thousands himself. He was hired to do that. Um 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:19.160 and hides were going for two dollars ahead and in 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:21.800 the winner of eighteen seventy two to seventy three, just 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:25.480 the winner one point five million buffalo hides. Bison hides 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:28.480 were shipped back east by train. Well. I do know 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:31.080 at one point that they said that the big hunters 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:34.920 were using two guns because they were shooting them so fast, 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.200 they had to let one gun cool down, and so 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:40.480 they just picked up the fresh gun so they wouldn't 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:43.360 have to stop killing. Yeah, at first, like they were 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:46.440 shooting him for meat, and then buffalo hide, bison hide 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:49.720 became all the rage, not just back East but in 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:52.720 Europe as well. Demand increase, so they're like, oh, well, 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:55.480 let's you know, we'll just leave the meat there. We 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:57.800 don't need the meat. There's millions of these things, rotting 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:03.000 carcasses everywhere. Um And as if this couldn't get worse, 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:06.200 as if it couldn't get worse, right, So the poor 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:11.240 bison population, possibly if there was bison overkill, their apex 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:14.160 predators removed, they're allowed to bloom, and then a new, 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:18.680 even more damaging apex predator comes in starts killing indiscriminately 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:21.640 like they've never seen before. The one of the reasons 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:24.080 why they had bison killing contests was not just for 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:29.080 the railroad, but it was because the um federal government 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:32.840 in whites in general figured out that the planes Indians 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:37.439 subsisted on bison take away. The bison take away the 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:41.200 food supply. You civilized the Indian. So that was one 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:44.280 reason why bisons were hunted to near extinction with so 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:47.840 such glee was because it was serving a larger purpose 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:50.960 of bringing the Indians into the fold as well. So 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:56.560 there's a way to tame the West. We're starving them. 0:17:57.160 --> 0:18:01.320 So again we get down to what five bison that 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:07.400 are finally protected. Um, and it's starting in nineteen o six. 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:10.359 Who who is responsible for this? Uh, nineteen oh five 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:13.359 environmentalist he might have heard of by the name of 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:18.199 Teddy Roosevelt and William Hornaday, who was a zoologists, poet, 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:23.760 can conservationist, songwriter, realtor evidently thought that was odd. That 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:25.680 is not well, you gotta make money somehow because those 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:29.200 other ones aren't doing so. Uh. He was a really 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:32.560 top notch conservationists actually. But um, William Hornaday and Teddy 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:36.560 Roosevelt formed the American Bison Society nineteen o five because 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:39.240 they were like, wait a minute, these things are remember 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:40.800 all those buffalo that used to be out there that 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:43.600 aren't there anymore? Like this might be a problem. They're like, 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:46.320 what are we gonna hunt? And so we're better to 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:48.399 send them plus send them to the Bronx in New 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:52.119 York City, the Great Plains of the Bronx. Yeah, and 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:54.160 it definitely got him out of the hands of poachers. 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:57.080 Uh and kidding aside, though the bronx who was a 0:18:57.080 --> 0:19:02.120 great place for them to send some species for uh reproducing. 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:05.119 And Yellowstone National Park was established as a as a 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:07.479 preserve and the New Yorkers got to sit there and 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:11.159 watch bison getting it on. I guess so nicol ahead, 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:17.919 nick boy, not a buffalo, nickel uh huh uh. They 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:21.320 also uh the night created the federal government created the 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:24.720 National Bison Range in Montana. But these weren't the efforts 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:27.879 that ultimately did a lot to increase the numbers. No, 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:31.440 because you know what, although they were protected, and Congress 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:36.680 actually did pass an act um, the Federal Park Protective Act. 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:39.960 I believe that said if you poach buffalo, you're in 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:45.520 big trouble. Um, they were never listed as endangered. Yeah, 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:47.359 I wonder why I couldn't get a reason there, So 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:50.439 I don't know either. But they were clearly close to 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:52.320 being in danger, but they were never listed, so they 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:56.760 didn't enjoy that full protection. So Roosevelt, he he had 0:19:56.800 --> 0:19:59.919 a pretty good effort by establishing the Park Service, yellow 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:03.120 Stone had a protected heard. You had him in the Bronxoo, 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:05.400 you had him in Oklahoma, you had him in in 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:09.600 um South Dakota. But none of these, like you said, 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:13.800 led to the real resurgence, the the um, the resurgence 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:18.080 in the bison population in North America. What did, though, Chuck, Well, 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:20.960 maybe we should talk about well, yeah, sure, what did uh? 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:26.320 Private landowners? Head Turner, head freaking turner. Yeah, he was 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:30.480 the one responsible for bringing the bike the bison back 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:34.520 from the near extinction. He's one of my heroes. Should 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:37.160 we just give a few Turner stats here? The second 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:41.400 largest private landowner in North America. He's got about two 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:46.760 million acres of ranch land and uh fifteen ranches and 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:51.840 seven states that are all bison ranches, active working bison ranches, 0:20:52.720 --> 0:20:56.879 and I believe he manages about fifty thousand head of 0:20:56.960 --> 0:21:02.160 bison himself, himself, by hand himself. Well, Jane helped out 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:05.399 while they were together, and he opened his I'm sorry. 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:07.640 He purchased his first bison in seventy six and opened 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:10.720 his first bison ranch in seven, which makes me wonder 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:13.160 where did he keep that bison for eleven years? Did 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:14.919 he just like take it everywhere with him in the 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:17.919 backseat or he had plenty of land. There was no 0:21:17.960 --> 0:21:20.560 shortage of space for that one bison. But I think 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:22.280 he to answer your question, he kept it at his 0:21:22.320 --> 0:21:25.840 mansion in Buckhead, UM. If you want to learn more 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:28.600 about Ted Turner's um, he has many ongoing projects to 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:31.680 save the species. You can go to www dot t 0:21:31.800 --> 0:21:35.600 E s F dot org and he's I mean a 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:39.359 lot of this is obviously for for raising bison to 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:43.840 sell two stock his Ted's Montana grills with fresh bison 0:21:43.920 --> 0:21:47.560 steaks and burgers. But it still helps the conservation, well, 0:21:47.560 --> 0:21:52.520 it does. I mean, whether they're free roaming or um 0:21:52.560 --> 0:21:56.280 commercially raised. If you are just looking at the hard 0:21:56.359 --> 0:21:59.560 numbers of bison populations in the US, they are not 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:03.520 in injured anymore. And it's because they're so delicious that 0:22:03.560 --> 0:22:06.480 there is. That's the reason why they're not endangered. Well, 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:08.879 and one of the cool things about the bison is 0:22:09.040 --> 0:22:12.800 it's it's across the board. The National Bison Association prohibits 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:17.440 the use of sub therapeutic antibiotics, growth hormones, and animal byproducts. 0:22:17.440 --> 0:22:20.159 So it's not like, oh, this one calform says we 0:22:20.160 --> 0:22:23.439 shouldn't inject them with hormones. It's all all bison in 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:28.200 the US, and they are very nutritional compared to cow beef. 0:22:28.280 --> 0:22:31.080 They I don't need to be handled much. They almost 0:22:31.080 --> 0:22:36.600 exclusively dine on grass. And if it's if it's um 0:22:36.680 --> 0:22:41.800 unmanaged grass, that's it's organics, fully organic. Yeah. Absolutely. Uh, 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:45.480 let's talk nutrients. The proportions of protein, fat and minerals 0:22:45.520 --> 0:22:49.719 and fatty acids to its caloric value are outstanding compared 0:22:49.760 --> 0:22:53.840 to grass. Beef, I'm sorry, just beef period and um, 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:57.120 large concentrations of iron and a lot of essential fatty acids. 0:22:57.119 --> 0:22:59.800 So people are up with bison. They're eating it a 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:02.600 lot more over the past decade. The numbers have really 0:23:02.640 --> 0:23:06.439 risen dramatically. Um, do you eat it? Yeah, I've had it. 0:23:06.440 --> 0:23:08.720 It's good stuff. I've had a bison burger. I didn't 0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:11.240 you know. I've had bison steak at ted the Montana Grill, 0:23:11.320 --> 0:23:13.360 which I should say, full of this closure, we own 0:23:13.440 --> 0:23:15.920 no stock. What's however, and I've never eaten there. Oh 0:23:15.960 --> 0:23:18.280 you should. It's cool. It's got to like the the 0:23:18.359 --> 0:23:22.680 interior decor is like a turn of the last century 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:26.800 like Kansas restaurant. Yeah, it's very cool, like the tin 0:23:27.000 --> 0:23:29.919 plate ceiling and all that stuff. Um, and yeah, the 0:23:29.960 --> 0:23:31.840 bison steak is very good. Now, can you tell the 0:23:31.840 --> 0:23:34.840 big taste difference. Yeah, really yeah, because I've had the 0:23:34.880 --> 0:23:37.160 burger and I couldn't tell a huge difference. But you're 0:23:37.160 --> 0:23:40.280 a steak guy. You like steaks, you immediately you can 0:23:40.320 --> 0:23:42.000 look at it and tell a difference. But the taste 0:23:42.000 --> 0:23:43.880 you can tell the difference as well too. I mean 0:23:43.920 --> 0:23:46.280 it's not just like it's not like eating cat and 0:23:46.320 --> 0:23:49.000