Bison

Welcome to the National Zoo, Bison.

William Temple Hornaday, the famed conservationist who helped plan the National Zoo, leads a bison calf in this 1889 photograph

My arrival at the National Zoo:

One day I was grazing with my family in Yellowstone when I heard news that animals were being captured and transported East to a National Zoo. I heard the Zoo was being created by three men in an effect to preserve the species and exhibit them to the people of Washington DC. A couple days after I heard about all this, a group of men came and put me and my family in crates and put us on a train. It was a dark and frightening ride. When I arrived at Washington DC, it was like nothing I had ever seen before. The large amounts of people and tall buildings completely contrasted the open, grassy landscape I was accustomed to in Yellowstone.



Bison in the South Yard behind the Smithsonian Institution Building. This photograph was taken before the founding of the National Zoo in 1889

Founding of the Zoo

A man named William Temple Hornaday, one of the founders of the zoo, was deeply concerned with the slaughter of buffalos in the west and wanted to conserve my species. Hornaday enbarked on an expidition in 1886 to the Rocky Mountain West in search of bison. His travels were financed by the Smithsonian. Hornaday took months to hunt down twenty five bison to mount in an exbitit at the National Zoo. He also took back live bison to display at the Smithsonian. His goal was to educated the American public about the species and gain support for the conversation effort. The live exhibit was so popular, it was a reason leading to the founding of the National Zoological Park in 1888, with Hornaday acting as the first director. Hornaday later went on to direct the Bronz Zoo in 1896, creating the largest zoo in the United States. He wrote a novel, //The Extermination of the American Bison,// in 1889 to stir American support for his cause. Hornaday also was the first president of the American Bison Society, an organization set on preserving the bison population.

 Exhibit created by William Temple Hornaday at the Smithsonian Museum.

 School Children in 1889 admiring the first bison in the National Zoo

Below is a portion of a letter from William Temple Hornaday in 1887 urging G. Brown Goode, assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, to share his concern for the preservation of bison.

Prof. G. Brown Goode. Assistant Secretary Smithsonian Institution In charge of the National Museum Sir: -- I desire to respectfully call your attention to the fact that the United States Government has thus far taken no special measures whatever for the preservation of the Great American Bison, either in confinement or on a public reservation. Until very recently we have had reason to believe that the band of buffaloes know to be in the Yellowstone Park was adequately protected, and that the animals composing it were breeding in real security. From the reports 2 that have been published we have been led to believe that there are between 100 and 125 head of buffaloes in the Park. While recently in the vicinity of the National Park I learned from competent and reliable sources that the buffaloes in the Park have been killed off as they wandered out or were drive out of the Park limits, until now it is the general belief amongst those most interested that __not over twenty head remain__! It is a well known fact that a number of hunters, some of whom distinguished themselves in past years in the slaughter of buffalo, have been, and are now living along the Park boundaries on the East and South for the purpose of killing buffaloes and other game that wanders out of the reservation, or can be safely frightened out. In Mandan, Dak. I saw the heads of two Park Buffaloes, and in Helena, Montana three out of a lot of six more, that 3 had been killed by those worthies, some of whom I could name. The six heads in Helena had been hidden in the snow all winter, in order to keep them from the eyes of law officers, and had been mutilated by coyotes. The fact that the game in the Park is not adequately protected, is notorious. While there is no doubt that the troop charged with police duty is vigilant and active, and well directed, the force is entirely too small, and not sufficiently provided with posts of rendezvous to cover the ground which should be covered. In winter the men all retreat to the hotels, which are the only winter quarters provided, and the best game districts of the park are thus left entirely without protection, and for quite a long period. It would seem that a wire fence eight feet high is imperatively needed around the entire park. 4 and I respectfully submit the question whether it is not the duty of the Smithsonian Institution to memorialize Congress on this point at the next session. With the entire park so enclosed, it would be a comparatively easy matter to make of it the greatest game preserve in the world. In view of the fact that thus far this government has done nothing to preserve alive any specimens of the American Bison, the most striking and conspicuous species on this continent, I have the honor to propose that the Smithsonian Institution, or the National Museum, one or both, take immediate steps to procure either by gift or purchase, as may be necessary, the nucleus of a herd of live buffaloes. Having been spared the misfortune, thanks to the Smithsonian Institution, of being left without a series of skins and skeletons of the species suitable for the wants of the National Museum, it now <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;">5 <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;">seems necessary for __us__ to assume the responsibility of forming and preserving a herd of live buffaloes which may, in a small measure, atone for the national disgrace that attaches to the heartless and senseless extermination of the species in a wild state.