(New York, NY – January 21, 2016) Delegates of the Blackfeet Nation (often called the “Buffalo People”) toured WCS’s Bronx Zoo and are seen here in front of the zoo's bison exhibit. Shown in this photo (from left to right) are: Keith Aune (WCS), Lona Running Wolf, Tyson Running Wolf, Harry Barnes, Carol Murray, John Murray, Majel Russell, and Ervin Carlson.

In addition, the group met with WCS staff to discuss collaboration on upcoming initiatives and events. The delegation, from Montana, is now in Washington, D.C. where they are meeting with congressional representatives from South Dakota and Montana, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs and other agencies. Among the issues to be discussed is the passage of the National Bison Legacy Act. The bill, which was recently passed in the Senate, would make the bison the national mammal of the United States.

 In the early 1900s, bison numbered less than 1,100 individuals after ranging across North America in the tens of millions a century earlier. In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt, William Hornaday who was the first director of the Bronx Zoo, and others intent on saving the bison from extinction convened a group of diverse stakeholders at the zoo and formed the American Bison Society (ABS). ABS developed a new conservation ethic and helped save bison. In 1907, fifteen Bronx Zoo–born bison were sent by ABS to the first big game refuge in the U.S.—the Wichita Reserve Bison Refuge in Oklahoma.

Today, bison number in the hundreds of thousands in North America, but most live on private lands as livestock.  This has resulted in a disconnect between the bison and the native people and cultures that relied upon them. Only a small fraction of today’s bison are legally designated as wildlife. Conservation efforts are underway to maintain viable bison populations in an effort to preserve the species, a symbol of our national heritage.