30-60 million Bison used to roam the plains

Super fact 110 : At the end of the 18th century there were 30-60 million North American Bison (buffalo) roaming the plains. The mass destruction of the bison began in 1830 and was intentional and by the end of the 19th century there were only a few hundred left. Since then, they have recovered and today there are 500,000 Bison including 30,000 wild Bison.

The picture shows a male plains bison standing on a plain and looking into the camera.
Scientists are helping users of American rangelands meet the challenge of managing multiple uses and sustainably. This picture is in the public domain because it contains materials that originally came from the Agricultural Research Service, the research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture. From Wikimedia commons author Jack Dykinga.

In the past there were at least 30-60 million bison, roaming North America. As mentioned by the end of the 19th century there were only a few hundred left. They have recovered since then and now there are 500,000 Bison including 30,000 wild Bison. For comparison there are 86.2 million cattle in the US  and another 11.8 million in Canada. This is just one of many reasons that the wild mammal biomass has substantially declined around the world. Wild mammals have declined by 85% since the rise of humans even as the total mammal biomass has nearly tripled.

The reason for the extremely sharp decline of the Bison in the 19th century was because the U.S. government intentionally drove the bison to the brink of extinction. The American bison was a major resource for the traditional way of life of the native Americans and therefore the extermination of the Bison became an important tool in the efforts to subjugate Native Americans.

30-60 million Bison used to roam the plains | 1892: bison skulls await industrial processing at Michigan Carbon Works in Rougeville (a suburb of Detroit). Bones were processed to be used for glue, fertilizer, dye/tint/ink, or were burned to create "bone char" which was an important component for sugar refining. In the 16th century, North America contained 25–30 million buffalo.
1892: bison skulls await industrial processing at Michigan Carbon Works in Rougeville (a suburb of Detroit). Bones were processed to be used for glue, fertilizer, dye/tint/ink, or were burned to create “bone char” which was an important component for sugar refining. In the 16th century, North America contained 25–30 million buffalo. This picture is in the public domain and taken from this Wikipedia.

I consider this a super fact because it is a shocking historical event that it seems many are unaware of. I was certainly surprised the first time I read about it.

How Did the Bison Population Recover ?

At the end of the 19th century indigenous groups used the Flathead Indian Reservation to quietly protect small captive herds, keeping bison alive while they vanished from the wild. In addition, a few individuals as well as Native American families captured stray calves and started private breeding programs.

A herd of grazing bison on a field in Yellowstone. In the background are geysers and hills.
Herd of American bison grazing in a green meadow at Yellowstone National Park, with geysers and mountains in the background under a bright blue sky. Shutterstock asset id: asset id: 2688666937 by NicoleHFlores
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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

56 thoughts on “30-60 million Bison used to roam the plains”

    1. the photo of the skulls is absolutely heartbreaking – isn’t there a famous photo of bison being driven over a cliff? but somehow this one is even worse… politics, money, greed… & why does society need monetary reasons for keeping things alive?…

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      1. Yes I agree with you da-AL. It is horrific and you are making good points. I didn’t remember a picture of bison being driven over a cliff but now when you said it I googled it and found it. I learned about this event the first time 20 years ago when we visited Yellowstone National Park and I read up on Bison (we called them Buffalo). 

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          1. Yes I think the Indian Buffaloes and African Buffaloes are technically Buffaloes but the Bison/Buffalo in North America are really Bison even though a lot of people call them Buffalo. I used to call them Buffalo until I visited Yellowstone National Park. Well I still call them Buffalo sometimes by mistake.

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            1. I wonder why that is… eventually they’ll have been called buffalo for long enough that that’s what they’ll be officially called, such is the evolution of language lol

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    2. Yes you are right Maggie. I am going to update. I also realized that my “How Did the Bison Population Recover ?” is too short. That was just the start. Thank you so much Maggie.

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    1. Tragically, the deliberate near-extinction of the bison is not that unbelievable, considering that the creation of the United States was, in essence, a massive land grab by one group of humans who wanted to displace another group that had lived in North America for thousands of years. It is one of those things that certain Americans don’t want us to dwell on, especially on this Semiquincentennial year.

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    1. Thank you so much Kevin. It was very interesting to read about blue and yellow macaws in Rio. What a fascinating come back after a very sad story. I just read it. You are right “Humans pretty much cause more harm in everyplace we go.” But it is great that we are trying to fix things now. I also read Sapiens. It is a great book.

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  5. That photo of all the skulls is shocking. I can’t believe they were nearly driven to extinction (well, I can, but it’s awful). Thank goodness they’ve now recovered. They’re stunning animals. Thank you for this, Thomas.

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    1. You are right. I did not know about this until we visited Yellowstone National Park 20 years ago and I read up on Bison (we called them Buffalo). I am not surprised that you knew. You are a naturalist with a lot of animal knowledge. Thank you so much Robbie.

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  10. It IS a shocking historical event. I knew of the slaughter but was not aware of the intentional background. Words are insufficient to describe how I feel about it, but horrific and grotesque come to mind. It is important that we know the truth. I’m very thankful the bison are recovering and can see how they can be a symbol for Native American freedom and independence.

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    1. Yes I agree with you. It is a horrific event that I did not know anything about until about 20 years ago on my first visit to Yellowstone National Park. I read up Bison (or Buffalo as they called them) before traveling to the park. A lot of people I talked to had no idea this happened. I am glad some people worked to save some of them and I am glad they are recovering.

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  11. Thanks for this informative post, Thomas. It always shocks me just how near the bison came to utter extinction. I’m glad there has been some population recovery, even if it is only a tiny fraction of their earlier numbers.

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    1. Yes you are right. From 30+ million to 300, only 0.001% left. That is pretty close to extinction. And if hadn’t been for that small group of people and Native Americans in the 1890’s they would have gone extinct.

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  12. Absolutely horrific of the US government to kill all those animals to hurt the Native Indians. I watched Yellowstone, and it reminds of the fights with the Indians over land, and all that bison. I’m glad they’ve repopulated. 😊

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  15. Java Bean: “Ayyy, our Dada knows about this story. For example he says he remembers reading about how people would shoot bison from the trains as they went by and would just leave them there to rot. Another shameful episode in history that certain factions would like to just gloss over, according to him …”

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