--- title: Bison Becomes U.S. National Mammal: Why They Even Exist description: There's a surprising reason why the once-shrinking population of the new national mammal of the United States has rebounded canonical: https://time.com/4311574/bison-national-mammal/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-09T19:10:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:46:39.003Z article:section: History og:title: Bison Becomes U.S. National Mammal: Why They Even Exist og:description: The once-shrinking bison population has rebounded og:url: https://time.com/4311574/bison-national-mammal/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfac0e1996b0232a1/698891313c16396b7f45d0e3/bison.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Bison og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bison Becomes U.S. National Mammal: Why They Even Exist twitter:description: The once-shrinking bison population has rebounded twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfac0e1996b0232a1/698891313c16396b7f45d0e3/bison.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Surprising Reason Why the Bison Even Exists to Be the U.S. National Mammal  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 9, 2016 7:10 PM UTC  Bison herd with babies in Yellowstone National Park in 2014 Bison herd with babies in Yellowstone National Park in 2014Wolfgang Kaehler—LightRocket / Getty Images  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 9, 2016 7:10 PM UTC The bison has been named [America’s first national mammal,](https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/hr2908/text) after the President [signed](https://www.doi.gov/blog/15-facts-about-our-national-mammal-american-bison) the National Bison Legacy Act on Monday, the culmination of a four-year push by a [coalition](https://time.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=4311574&action=edit) of over 60 organizations, businesses and Native American tribes. With the President’s signature, the measure will mean that the bison joins the bald eagle as an official animal symbol of the United States. (For those tempted to whip out a banjo and start singing “Where the buffalo roam” from “Home on the Range,” note that bison and buffalo are different animals, even though Americans use the names interchangeably. The National Parks Service [says](https://www.nps.gov/wica/learn/nature/bison-buffalo-bison-bison.htm) early explorers in North America confused bison for “old world buffalo” — Asian and African buffalo — but bison have large shoulder humps and shorter horns.) [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) The designation aims to “prevent” the nearly half a million North American bison “from going extinct and to recognize the bison’s ecological, cultural, historical and economic importance to the United States,” [according to](http://newsroom.wcs.org/News-Releases/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/8891/WCS-Applauds-Bi-Partisan-House-Passage-of-National-Bison-Legacy-Act-Urges-Senate-to-Take-Action.aspx) Cristián Samper, President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society. The American plains bison, however, is not an endangered species. According to the World Wildlife Fund, the wild population of [plains bison—](http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/plains-bison)with the memorable scientific name _Bison bison bison—_ numbers 20,504\. (The[ wood bison](http://www.fws.gov/alaska/fisheries/endangered/pdf/wood%5Fbison/factsheet.pdf), _Bison bison athabascae_, which really is [much less common](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2015/03/23/wood-bison-u-s-return), is a separate subspecies.) That’s not to say American bison wasn’t once on the brink of extinction. In the 1500s, about 30 million bison are said to have roamed in North America, but by the late 1800s, their numbers dropped to less than 1,000, likely due to a combination of human actions and climate change. Riding horses made it easier for humans to hunt them throughout the 1700s, until they started starving to death when an 1841 deep freeze iced over the prairies so the bison couldn’t eat the grass, as TIME[ previously reported](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1599697,00.html). Bison hunts also expanded in response to increased demand for leather, becoming more efficient as better guns were invented and steam power enabled the faster, cheaper transportation of hides. ### See Majestic Historical Photos of the U.S.’s New National Mammal  Lithograph of an American Indian on horseback killing a bison. Circa 1850-1860. Library of Congress  Stereoscopic view of a Bison. Circa 1875. From the New York Public Library  A postcard illustrating Bison at water. Circa 1898-1931. From the New York Public Library  Herd of American Bison, browsing in safety, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Circa 1895-1920. From the New York Public Library  American bison, circa 1906. Library of Congress  Bison in the Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Circa 1907. Library of Congress  An American bison, circa 1930. Hulton Archive—Getty Images  A herd of bison migrating south from Yukon. Circa 1930. Fox Photos—Getty Images  Bison herd in Arizona. 1935. Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone—Getty Images  On a ranch in southern Michigan; there are several hundred wild bison snorting and pawing the ground and ready to toss all intruders. 1945. Toronto Star Archives—Getty Images  A North American Bison, circa 1950s. Paul Popper—Popperfoto/Getty Images  Bison in the Witchita Mountains wildlife refuge. 1952. Bettman—Getty Images  Bison crowded together in a corner of one of their enclosures at Daniels Park. Ira Gay Sealy—The Denver Post/Getty Images  Well into his 20s, this white bull is one of the most photographed animals on the bison range at Moiese, Montana. 1957. The Denver Post—Getty Images  Herd of bison roaming across National Bison Range in Montana. 1961. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images While some private ranchers rounded up some of the survivors to start small herds in the late 19th century, [the Parks Service](https://www.nps.gov/wica/learn/historyculture/the-return-of-the-bison.htm) traces the beginning of a “concerted national effort” to preserve the species to Dec. 8, 1905, when the American Bison Society was formed by 16 people—including Theodore Roosevelt and William Hornaday, the first director of the New York Zoological Park (now known as the Bronx Zoo). Fifteen captive-bred bison were transferred from the Bronx Zoo to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, the oldest managed wildlife facility in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife system. But, paradoxically, it was not just a desire to keep bison alive that finally prevented their extinction. “Sometimes you have to eat an animal to save it,” as TIME explained in a 2007 profile written at a moment when bison were considered the fastest-growing sector of the meat business. By one 2011 [count](http://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/species/mammals/wildplainsbison/), the number of farmed bison, in herds meant for commercial purposes, is nearly 20 times the size of the “conservation” population. As the magazine [summed up](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1599697,00.html) why private ranchers are key to the survival of the species: --- > “” --- **_Read the full story from 2007, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Why the Buffalo Roam](http://time.com/vault/issue/2007-03-26/page/65/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4311574/bison-national-mammal/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4311574/bison-national-mammal/"},"headline":"The Surprising Reason Why the Bison Even Exists to Be the U.S. National Mammal","datePublished":"2016-05-09T19:10:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:46:39.003Z","description":"The once-shrinking bison population has rebounded","url":"https://time.com/4311574/bison-national-mammal/","keywords":["animals","Newsfeed"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfac0e1996b0232a1/698891313c16396b7f45d0e3/bison.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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