A while back, someone posted a link to an article about how disease more than likely put buffalo in decline, not over hunting. The authors pointed out that it would be almost impossible for that many buffalo to be shot even if there ever was enough ammo. I can't find the article now. Does anybody else remember that? Can anyone help me find that article? Thanks!

https://allthatsinteresting.com/buffalo-slaughter

Yep...This might have a little to do with it..Looks like ammo was no problem...some will say though this never happened..LOL

Thanks, that wasn't it though.

I thought it was pretty much universally accepted that both over hunting and disease caused their drastic decline in numbers.

Edit: Here's one article, there are lots more out there via Google. Apparently the diseases weren't from cattle like I originally thought, at least according to this one article.

https://www.tsln.com/news/a-unique-study-of-bison-populations/

Id say it was Market hunting. Supported by the Government ...

I've always suspected it was more than just the shooting! Same with the decline of beaver. Who has tried to catch that last beaver out of a colony, with our traps and methods of today, and takes awhile to do. Mountain men didn't have the luxurys of today, so how did they do it! Lotsa bs wrapped up in some of our history. That pile of skulls and bones in Posco's pic was the aftermath of all the buffalo killing, both white and indian, that left bones on the plains. A market developed for bone meal well after the buffalo were gone, and they gathered all the bones and sold them. Ever wonder why it is so hard to find buffalo bones out on the prairie....like they were never there! Only ones found now are ones that were buried in streams, and got covered up otherwise.

Seriously? We look even cross eyed at a wolf and we wipe out have the earths canine population. They want me to believe incredible shooting, naturally damaging storms, the coming of wire, and so on couldn't knock the buffalo out?
They could have had help from cattle disease but I do not recall any stories from whites or natives of big die offs they thought were diseas. Maybe there were... Certainly hear of great winter kills, spring flood kills, of course human causes.
I think people overlook how few natives were actually on the plains, and how incredibly fast huge numbers of whites invaded the plains from the gold rushes, rail etc. overnight the pressure on buffalo became crazy.


How is it man can somehow kill the entire planets climate, but he couldn't have killed off buffalo herds?

Osky

Yep..And they left all the meat to rot...took their tongues and skin...

That picture is incredible.

Correct Osky.

I prefer to agree with the Cliff Clavin theory about buffalo that has been posted on here a few times.

And.........what might that be?

If you check the article in the link, it does cite examples of huge numbers of dead bison apparently killed by disease.

There are photos out there of the killing fields when the hunter groups were done. Incredible carnage. There are also pictures of rail cars being loaded with skins. I believe a big market was England using the leather to make belts to turn machinery in the evolving Industrial Age.

Some accounts I read shooters used 2 and some 3 guns to keep them cool. One shot per animal, they would eventually die where the herd went, easy to find.

Osky

I,did not click or see that. Could be. How many do you suppose died in a bad winter, floods, or drought when the grass was no good.

Osky

The Buffalo Theory As Told By Cliff Clavin To His Buddy Norm:

"Well ya see, Norm, it's like this... A herd of buffalo can only move as fast the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members."

"In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know kills brain cells. But naturally it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first."

In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers."

Passenger Pigeon???

Historical accounts have always left me wondering when we can't agree on what's unfolding before our very eyes today. How will it be written?

However the progressives wanted it to be.

Osky