William Temple Hornaday

Remember when "friends of animals" were the zoological professional's, even with their hide's, heads, and horns for study purposes and not some nit wit from the private sector living in Private Idaho, who thinks they know better then those who devoted their lives to animals?



Director Hornaday of the N.Y. Zoological Park and Frank Rush, cowboy from Okla, crating buffalo herd to be shipped from New York to Nat'l Game Preserve in Okla.

'Did they actually transport the buffalo by wagon from New York to Oklahoma?" Amazing!!!!! King of Aquaria mention's going back in time. I would give anything to spend just one day with William Hornaday. Can you even begin to imagine the jackpot's he could share?'

An 1889 survey conducted by William Hornaday, the first director of the Wildlife Conservation Society (then the New York Zoological Society), found that only 1,091 bison, wild and captive, remained in North America. At that point with the great herds gone, a few isolated individuals took actions to preserve the scattered remains of the species. Some ranchers in Montana and Texas, wealthy New Yorkers, preservation from poachers of a few isolated wild bison in Yellowstone National Park, New York City zoos, and some dedicated federal employees all had a hand in the saving of the survivors.

From this new beginning, bison have increased in numbers to over 350,000 today. Most of these animals are being raised commercially on private ranches. Some 90% include cattle genes from cross breeding at some time in the past. Although even these hybrids appear like purebred bison. Less than 20,000 are pure bison and many of these are the product of a very narrow gene pool associated with the late 19th Century population bottleneck.

'Why wouldn't it work for rhino's, elephant's or any other animal for that matter, excluding cross breeding, to "financially" preserve them for posterity?'