Brooklyn College City University of New York

Lab #3: Buffalo

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Buffalo (Bison bison) once ranged across the Great Plains and into the eastern United States. They were the most abundant large animal in North America with a population size of about 200 million individuals. Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, Blackfeet and other Plains Indians depended on buffalo as the economic basis of their cultures. In the late 19th century, buffalo were systematically slaughtered by European Americans as a means of clearing the plains for settlement. Under governmental protection for a century, buffalo have again increased in numbers, and are no longer endangered.