Fair, but the restoration is a pittance compared to what the herds used to be like. Granted, I wouldn’t want to step out of my house and be trampled by a bison because there were so many of them, but still, it was a tremendous upset to a natural system, and systematic genocide to boot. Nothing much to like about how it all happened.
I read an interesting hypothesis a few months ago that the vast herds of bison were actually due to indigenous Americans being killed off by disease due to European settlers. They were no longer managing the land, so the grasses took over and the bison population exploded.
Obviously, there were still far more bison than there are today, but possibly not the massive herds of thousands that colonists reported seeing on their way west.
I went to a national park and they had bison. I had the very awkward conversation about why bison are protected now, with my young children.
Humans are awful
The humans that worked hard to get them protected and to make a significant comeback seem alright.
Fair, but the restoration is a pittance compared to what the herds used to be like. Granted, I wouldn’t want to step out of my house and be trampled by a bison because there were so many of them, but still, it was a tremendous upset to a natural system, and systematic genocide to boot. Nothing much to like about how it all happened.
I read an interesting hypothesis a few months ago that the vast herds of bison were actually due to indigenous Americans being killed off by disease due to European settlers. They were no longer managing the land, so the grasses took over and the bison population exploded.
Obviously, there were still far more bison than there are today, but possibly not the massive herds of thousands that colonists reported seeing on their way west.
Ok