Ardent
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
I'm of the same suspicion, even 6 million Bison is an enormous population. For instance, one article I read put Canada's moose population at 600,000; 10% of the out of a hat 6 million figure we're bouncing, which of course is in turn 10% of the 60 million figure. And there are a godawful lot of moose in this country. As another comparison, the apparently limitless to the eye Wildebeest herds of Africa, cumulatively, only number about 1 million. Bison are a lot bigger than Wildebeest, and I just cannot even fathom sixty times the combined total Wildebeest population.
Like many things, I think the Bison were viewed as near limitless, humans are horrendous judges of quantity. As a perfect example I asked a fellow pilot for his guess on the Ethitthun Lake Bison herd's population, as we see them daily. He guessed several thousand. The last count I read was 300. Combine a population potentially far, far smaller than often figured with railways that encouraged wanton shooting and waste, government policy of extermination, massive inroads being made into the Bison's territory by settlers, commercial shooting of an extremely large scale (regardless total Bison numbers, the commercial kill figures quoted in the articles are enormous), domestic cattle diseases, and general pressure and it's easy to imagine why they collapsed so fast.
On a happier, modern note, we're looking at a Bison hunt this winter west of Wood Buffalo Park. 50/50 if we'll do it as time is tight with Africa coming up again in Feb, will be sure to write it up if we go.
Like many things, I think the Bison were viewed as near limitless, humans are horrendous judges of quantity. As a perfect example I asked a fellow pilot for his guess on the Ethitthun Lake Bison herd's population, as we see them daily. He guessed several thousand. The last count I read was 300. Combine a population potentially far, far smaller than often figured with railways that encouraged wanton shooting and waste, government policy of extermination, massive inroads being made into the Bison's territory by settlers, commercial shooting of an extremely large scale (regardless total Bison numbers, the commercial kill figures quoted in the articles are enormous), domestic cattle diseases, and general pressure and it's easy to imagine why they collapsed so fast.
On a happier, modern note, we're looking at a Bison hunt this winter west of Wood Buffalo Park. 50/50 if we'll do it as time is tight with Africa coming up again in Feb, will be sure to write it up if we go.
