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Buffalo roamed from Asia to North America
Long before humans ever made the journey, bison migrated from
Asia to North America. Bison adapted well to their new home, and
many new species evolved here. Millions of bison like this
one once grazed North American ranges. But now just one species
barely survives.
Our first settlers were eager bison hunters
In Europe and Asia, humans hunted bison for thousands of years.
When people migrated to North America, they took up the hunt
again. All over the Great Plains, we've found stone tools and
heaps of bison bones--evidence of very successful hunts.
Are humans bison's worst enemy?
Maybe. Some scientists believe that it was human hunting that
wiped out this subspecies of bison about 10,000 years ago--a
foreshadowing of the remaining species' near-extinction by European
settlers just 100 years ago.
Painting by Charles Knight. Field Museum photo Geo-CK-46.1T, by John
Weinstein.