The Bison: from 30 million to 325 (1884) to 500,000 (today)

Photo by Greg Farley, winner of the Flat Creek photo contest. Taken last fall in either TNP or YNP.

Last year, the bison was chosen as America’s first national mammal, joining the bald eagle as a symbol of America. I started writing this post with only a mild interest in bison. But the more I learned, the more I want to learn, and this blog post took on a life of it’s own. The bison have a fascinating history, unique appearance, and they present complex challenges in the present day. They are a symbol of the untamed West. Their near-extinction is a testament to the self-centeredness of “civilized” men and their resurgence shows that we can learn from and try to correct our mistakes.

Why did people nearly push the bison to extinction?

To settle the West, early settlers needed to conquer the Native Americans, and the bison were everything to the Natives. The bison provided meat for food and hides for tepees. So the US Army launched a campaign to kill the bison so they could control the Native Americans. Without this sad and complicated part of our history, many of us would not live in the homes we live in today. We live here at the expense of the people and the animals that used to call this home.




A Timeline of the American Bison

1500sAn estimated 30-60 million bison roam North America, mostly on the great plains.
1830Mass destruction of the bison begins.
1860Construction of the railroad accelerates human settlement and killing of bison.
1870An estimated 2 million are killed on southern plains in one year.
1872-1874An average of 5000 bison were killed every day of these three years. That’s 5.4 million bison killed in 3 years.
1884The bison population reaches it’s lowest point. Around 325 wild bison are left in the United States – including 24 in Yellowstone.
1910 Due to conservation efforts, bison increase to 1,000 in the US.
2017Today there are 500,000 bison in the US, including 5,000 in Yellowstone.


This map shows the decline of land occupied by bison.


Now that the bison are no longer endangered, why are the Yellowstone bison special?

Yellowstone is the only place in the continental US where wild, free ranging bison have lived continuously since prehistoric times. It is also the largest bison population in the country. And it’s one of the only purebread (no cattle genes) herds left. The other two other locations with purebred buffalo are in Utah and in South Dakota.

Are all of Yellowstone’s bison descended from the 24 in 1884?

No. In 1902 the U.S. Army brought 21 bison from two private herds to Yellowstone. These animals were bred with those already in Yellowstone.

What challenges do the Yellostone bison still have?

Limited space, and disease. When not facing mass destruction by man, bison are actually pretty good at reproducing; most adult females get pregnant every year. But the Park land is finite and inevitably the bison population wants to spread outside the Park. They do leave, since there is no fence around the exterior of the Park, and cattle ranchers in Montana do not want the bison roaming around and spreading disease to the cattle. The current solution to this problem is for Yellowstone to regularly capture about 1,000 bison per year and ship them to Native American tribes where they are slaughtered.

What disease are the cattle ranchers concerned about?

Up to 60% of Yellowstone bison test positive for brucellosis, which ironically, the bison got from cattle in the early 1900s. Brucellosis has been mostly eliminated from cattle across the US, but persists in the Yellowstone ecosystem’s bison and elk.

Do bison breed with cattle?

Yes (heard of beefalo? Cattalo?) but human intervention is required. Even though bison and cattle are different genus (usually animals need to be same genus to have offspring), they are able to breed and produce offspring that, surprisingly, are fertile (unlike some other hybrids like the mule).  The study of hybrids is a whole different subject.

What is the hump of a bison made out of?

Mostly muscle and bone. The spinous processes and associated muscles of the buffalo are much longer than those of similar mammals. The hump is one reason they are able to survive tough winters. It enables them to use their heads as snowplows in the winter so they can find grass.

Picture from


The bison is a great symbol for America for many reasons. For better or for worse, it’s a history of our determination to settle the West. The resurgence of the bison shows that every once in a while, man does something that is not just for himself.

To the many people who know more about bison than I do: I wrote this post based on information found on the national park website, and the fish and game website. If there are untruths or errors let me know!

Jessica Heath

54 responses to “The Bison: from 30 million to 325 (1884) to 500,000 (today)”

  1. Arsena Mary McIntire says:

    Hope to visit you all someday. It looks so beautiful there. Thank you for the information on Bison. It’s so sad that there are so few left compared to the numbers of the 1500’s. Humans always seem to find ways to destroy nature.

  2. Blake says:

    I am as much of a nature conservationist as the other people who care enough for it like I do. But I’m not sure if those numbers of bison is correct.. in the 1850’s the population in the United States was 23,191,878. And the bison population was 90,000,000 even if every person in the states killed 3.8 million per person that’s just very unrealistic. If if it took 100 years that wouldn’t be accurate. And the 1000 a day times 365 would be 365,000 a year which is doable with population at that time. But 90,000,000 divided by 365,000 that would take 246 years give or take.

    • Al says:

      Are you on drugs? Do the math again. 90 Mil divided by 23 Mil is 3.88 not 3.88 Mil. That’s 4 bisons per person. If only 1% of the population was killing bisons, i.e. 230,000 people, and killed about 100 a year, in less than four years all bison will be gone.

    • Jim says:

      First off, I do not see where a bison population of 90,000,000 is referenced in the article. There is an estimate of 30-60 million bison. The main part of the article seems to point to a population of 30,000,000 bison, that could have been as high as 60,000,000. The mass destruction of the bison started in the 1830s. In 1860, the killing rate increases (or it is implied that it increased) as a result of the westward expansion of the railroads. By 1860, it was estimated that 2,000,000 bison were killed annually. By 1884, there are an estimated 325 remaining. By 1884, approximately 54 years of bison killing had transpired. Being a little conservative using 1,500,000 bison are killed annually, between 1870 and 1882, 18,000,000 bison were killed. If 500,000 were killed annually during the first 20 years (1830-1850), that would reduce the heard by 10,000,000. If 1,000,000 were killed annually during the second 20 years (1851-1870), that would reduce the heard by 20,000,000. That is a ton of reduction … potentially 48,000,000 bison killed.

      A single bison hunter could easily kill a 100 (or more) bison a day. While bison are majestic creatures, they are not the brightest animal. Unlike many animals, they do not run when one of their herd is shot; they will stay and graze next to the fallen bison. I have seen video of this in modern times, where the bison are killed as they step outside the boundaries of Yellowstone Park and they are legally shot by waiting ranchers and hunters. The ones next to the fallen bison continue to graze, seemingly unconcerned about their “napping” partner. There are also stories of bison hunters driving large herds over cliffs to their death, where hundreds or thousands could be killed at a time. Sadly, many American bison hunters killed the bison for their hides, and left the carcass to rot.

      I have not looked into the Native American population. I am guessing there were large numbers of Native Americans during the 1830s to 1870s, and the bison was a staple for them. The Native Americans also hunted bison, which also reduced the numbers.

      As to the reproduction, according to information on the NPS site, about 20-40% of the new bison do not survive the winter in Yellowstone. There weren’t any stats on the rate of birth annually. If the herds were evenly composed of male and female bison, I could see where 1/3 might get pregnant; of those 1/3 that did get pregnant, it is less clear how many live births there were (less, than 100% for sure). Anyway, during the killing spree of bison, I would imagine the rate of survival of young bison was not very high.

      The bottom-line is a lot of bison were killed in the 1800s across the plains of the US. It is reasonable to account for the death of millions of bison over the 50+ years of prime killing of bison (or slaughter). Even if there were only 5 to 10 million bison, it would still have been a lot of killing, and much of it senseless killing.

  3. Hello
    We are visiting from Australia and toured Yellowstone. I discovered a guy too late a guy who carved his love for is girlfriend in a tree. I discovered a line protest explaining about the Bison slaughter. I am thinking the brucellosis claim is a cowboy scam. I read in a newspaper about your beautiful Bald Eagle collapsing with lead in their system. Back home a New Zealander in Australia poisoned over 200 of our Wedgetail eagles

    • Art Mills says:

      I’m as much of a nature lover as anyone and probably more so than most. I was a proponent of conservation before it was “woke”. I have been to Yellowstone and it’s beautiful. When I was young, I wanted more than anything to pursue a career in the Forest Service in Montana, but life dictated I follow another career. I am also a realist.

      What information do you have for “thinking the brucellosis claim is a cowboy scam”, or do you think that because it’s what you want to believe? Try to at least be fair with cattle ranchers and do some research before making such a statement.

      • John Sanford says:

        There is no evidence or reported cases that bison can transfer brucellosis to cattle. At the same time, elk carry brucellosis and can wander in and out of the park. Do some research before you refute such a statement.

  4. rhemmy says:

    I heard that there are ‘no more bison’ as they were prior to Native Americans up to the slaughter of them, thus we have they offspring of the bison the buffalo. have fun with this. i like your blog. God bless you.

    • EN says:

      Just want to say I am happy to hear that the American Bison is making a healthy comeback and that since in 1800’s you could not run to the grocery store and grab your dinner that this was a families only way to eat! As there is nowhere on this planet that man has not overpopulated that it is impossible not to have animals endangered unless we started hunting humans! So pretty much everyone of us is guilty!

  5. tk says:

    White man is an idiot. I did a rough calculation on the pile of skulls. 20 feet high 40 feet wide ( average 30 feet ) pretended it was half a sphere and figured each skull took up one cubic foot. I came up with 424,000 skulls. I am not a mathematician, just an average joe, If someone can do a better estimate I would be thrilled to find out.

    • Art Mills says:

      It’s easy to sit at your computer and pass judgment. If you lived there at that time you probably would be doing the same thing.

      While there were professional bison hunters that killed thousands, most people settling the west probably only killed enough to eat and protect their cattle. The American aborigines used to drive whole herds over cliffs when hunting them.

      I wouldn’t be too quick to call them idiots or evil. It shows your own ignorance.

      • RJT says:

        “The American aborigines used to drive whole herds over cliffs when hunting them.”

        Yeah at ~500-1000 a pop for the year… nowhere near the levels that are seen in the 1860’s & 70’s by white hunters. Buffalo extinction hunts were pushed by the US GOV in order to promote white settlers.

        • Joe says:

          You must’ve been educated in the public school system. “White Men” learned to hunt buffalo from American Indians.

          From Cave men forward to American Indians, the preferred method was always running them off a cliff, or corralling.

          The “White Man” merely brought the American Indians out of the dark ages. They no longer raid nearby villages killing all the men and enslaving the women & children.

          Of course, when you judge the history of the world from your couch, you show your naive ignorance.

          We don’t have “Aborigines” in the USA. You must be thinking of Australia.

          • Greenman says:

            Every continent has aborigines, which are defined as ‘a person, animal or plant that has been in a country or region from it’s earliest times’, or ‘peoples that inhabited a given region before colonisation by a foreign power’. What you refer to are aboriginal Australians, but those peoples displaced by Spanish conquistadors in Central and South America, and by Europeans in North America are also aboriginal.

    • Steve O says:

      I enjoy these kinds of estimations. Thanks for getting me thinking.
      I think it’s more like a cone than a sphere, though. Using your estimates of height and radius, I get:
      V=pi x r^2 x h/3

      = 3.14 x 400 x 20/3 = c. 8,400 cubic feet.
      I might estimate a bison skull to be a bit larger than 1 cubic foot, but I also think the pile is about 25 feet high.

      If we use 25 feet as the radius and your posit that it’s a 1/2 sphere, I still get a much smaller number
      V = (4/3 x pi x r^3) divided by 2 (for the 1/2 sphere)
      = (4/3 x 3.14 x 8000) / 2 = c. 33,000 cubic feet

      So your estimation seems high by more than an order of magnitude.

    • Jim says:

      How do you know the hill of skulls are a hill of skulls and not skulls on a hill ?

  6. Animal lover says:

    Very sad humans are so evil

  7. Gavin says:

    Just learn from history people and our generation try to do better which slowly seems to be happening. America was the first country to create a national park. That’s what’s needed more area’s to let nature flourish

  8. […] 1884, there were 325 bison left in the United States. Now, there are over 500,000. I would say there is cause for […]


  10. […] By 1877, only 512 of America’s National Mammal remained in consequence of Westward Expansion. […]

  11. I believe more like 200 million bison roamed.
    1)Because the state of Kansas documented that in 13 years 31 million bison carcass bones passed thru their states processing plant. They were from Nevada to Buffalo NY. Now add in all the other states…
    2)The main reason I believe in the 200 million is the fertile soil in the Midwest. It had to be Forrest’s at one time. Destroyed by something continuously for 10,000 years to where only grasses could recoup.
    Bison are proof cattle flatulence hurting us is BS:
    1)If you believe for the last 100 years, 90 million cattle’s flatulence is a problem. But for the prior 10,000 years(if you believe) 60 million bison(1/3 bigger) roamed U.S. and crushed the Midwest forests/brush making it grasslands while flatulating didn’t hurt us contradicts that completely. Bison itch almost constantly for 8-10 months depending on where they are (Shedding and flies).
    I think running them off cliffs and brucellosis killed more than anything else. Check out one of our trained bison chasing us on Facebook. Ridge Route Ranch. Love the site!

    • Greenman says:

      You make some interesting points, however you seem to have completely ignored the impact of the world’s apex creature in your reasoning. While your 200 million bison were busy munching grasses and flatulating across the plains, ( and the plains are grasslands because there is not enough annual rainfall to support great numbers of trees, not over-grazing), the human population of North America was measured in the tens of thousands. And they were hunter-gatherers. The methane production from 200 million bison wouldn’t even equate to the carbon dioxide produced by any one of the 10 largest cities in the U.S today.
      The point is that the planet could cope with ‘natural’ pollution as changes to these pollution levels were gradual – until mankind started burning fossil fuels at a rate that the planet cannot cope with.

  12. Suano Boots says:

    That is, without a doubt, the stupidest remark I’ve read or heard today. Congratulations, you ignorant fool. I invite you to come and talk that racist rhetoric face-to-face to some of those living in the dark ages.

    • Patrick61 says:

      Yes, that was a really low comment … really low

    • Earle Moreland says:

      Why is it that a few people seen unable to have a civil discourse about an issue without resorting to insults. I suspect that because they can hide behind the internet they’re willing to say things that they wouldn’t say to someone’s face.

    • Kiwi1704 says:

      Well done Suano – love and support.

  13. Brett T says:

    Ignorance is an easy ploy. Lets just face it people this is a big part history swept under the rug.
    If whites are still afraid to teach the truth of what really happened from continent to continent.
    Then why is it so easy to drag down another person of any race or creed?
    Statistics are shit. The facts are the facts.
    Whites traveled to many continents and devistated and plundered many tribes of many races.
    Including their native animals and plants.
    Buffalo& the bald eagles are a mere
    nick on the surface.

  14. Scott Howard says:

    I guy writes a story about the Bison and their massive population loss. The exact details don’t seem to matter, the fact that the herd was decimated to starve natives into submission is well known. How is de-volved into a name calling, political rant is beyond me, this isn’t FB or twitter!

    • The man who understands says:

      It’s all connected that’s why. The command to mass murder the bison comes from the government which is politics, the near extinction of bison and many native animals to America was a result of European expansion or from a European directive to a slave/”lesser human”. Simple as that. When you look past the simple article and really ponder who did what and why it was done you lead into this debate. However stop pointing the fingers to the past and let’s work together to save the damn planet or it’s going to be the next generation arguing about how we independent of race or culture destroyed the planet together.

    • Earle Moreland says:

      Agreed. People who don’t have an intelligent response to a proposition will simply resort to attacks and insults against the person.

  15. Eddie says:

    Sometimes in life one can be informed, shocked, and amazed in the different views and thoughts of the apex parasite of this living planet. The only thing that this fellow parasite is sure of we will all go the same way as whatever the number of buffalo into ancestry. I pray that each reap what they sow. I don’t need the satisfaction of seeing you when you come to the realization of your right or wrong. The creator is the ultimate judge we will face. I guess you’re either a positive force in nature or a negative force. Whatever your stance, at worst you can only make the planet inhabitable for yourself and your offspring. At best well… your guess is as good as any.

  16. Luca says:

    lots of events are sad throughout history and the entire west coast of the united states would not exist if settlers did not expand westward after the end of the civil war. there would literally even be no website or internet serves to post this blog because all that technology came out of california in the west. to everybody blaming the whites unless you want to live in a tent with no running water and no internet(which you obviously dont because you are in a house with internet posting on a web blog right now) i would say the progress made has been worth it. Your ancestors sacrificed alot to get you to where you are today and i think you all should quit complaining and be a little more grateful.

    Also, we cant change the past. but we can use what the past has given us to become more aware in the future and the future is whatever we choose to make it

    • The one who understands says:

      Your comment makes no sense, obviously whites are not the only intelligent ones and obviously others could learn of this technology. If I went back in time and sniped Isaac Newton before he published his mathematicas paper YOU would argue calculus and gravitational physics would never be established. Well turns out leibneiz had an exact copy of calculus. If I sniped leibneiz turns out the arabics already were working in derivatives and basic integration hundreds of years before either of these Europeans during the Islamic golden age (which is considered the golden age of science). The point is somebody else would have created or thought of it. There are many lost genius that we never will know of. So many African and Asian out there right now who have an IQ beyond any of our known scientist but the problem is they are lost to poverty, hunger, or violence. A prime example is ramanujan from India. To this day we are still deciphering his notebook and the math that transcends the limits of thinking, just recently it was found that on one of his pages in his third or fourth book is the equation that explained blackholes and their singularity, what Stephan Hawking would discover decades later with the use of advanced technology. Ramanujan discovered the same with a single pencil, one page if paper and dying of hunger and disease because supposedly God told him what to write.

    • Earle Moreland says:

      Just to make sure I get your point…..The pointless slaughter of millions of animals and the displacement and annihilation of numerous indigenous people so that we could have running water and watch endless reruns of Seinfeld and be blessed with the thing called California is…good?

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  18. Robert Neff says:

    It’s called history. His- story,
    Not my story or your story .
    And stories change over time,the only thing that makes sense is the fella who corrected the others math. No one knows the truth because it’s not your story but history (his story) .
    Thanks for the bs session!

  19. Dino man says:

    I miss the days of the dinosaurs… sad.

  20. buffflolover says:

    I love bufflos. their my favorte

  21. idontlikebufflos says:

    yeah stinky bufflos. they took my grass.

  22. bufflosarecute says:

    what do you mean. bufflos are the abslute best freinds i love them

  23. John Mahoney says:

    Unfortunately, the future is not malleable under pressure from Liberal and Conservatives alike. Nor, is there any pertinent correlation between Co2 emissions current day or in the days of free roaming Bison herds. One thing we can agree on is the strain colonialism has placed upon our ecosystems. Maybe something else we may agree on is that we have far surpassed what could be repairable in terms of adverse environmental effects and also regarding the natural rebound of North American Bison populations. So, in reality most of the comments shown here still actively show mankind’s selfish nature with the monotony of unintelligible comments. Take care and may the bison rest in peace and hope to avoid the bullet of the poachers rifle scope.

  24. Mike Dobsen says:

    Jessica, I see you conveniently left out how natives caused the greatest devastation to the wild buffalo when the horse was introduced. Over hunting had a huge affect on their near extinction, with millions being driven off of cliffs only to be wasted. The natives would go on to kill so many, that there would be pits of rotting carcasses since they couldnt consume them all. But I guess that doesn’t fit into your evil white man narrative, such a shame with reality, huh.

  25. Per Johnsen says:

    I read as of late 2019 that there are around one million buffalo in the US and Canada combined, included buffalo farms.

  26. Danny says:

    Look what early man did to the Mammoth I’m pretty sure they didn’t eat all they killed it’s in our nature . If we were there in the 1800’s we’d probably do the same .

  27. Duh says:

    I can’t believe even the true native Americans and conservationists here are calling the American bison a buffalo. All of you get off your high horse and stop trying to out smart each other with google and Wikipedia. Want to help the bison? Your not doing it here complaining about each other’s idiot comments.

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