Hacker News Reader

Comment by OptionOfT | Hacker News Reader

That's absolutely amazing news. I've seen them (at a distance) in Yellowstone.

The photo of the giant pile of bison skulls invokes such a feeling of pure doom. The fact that this happened not because the animals are a nuisance, but to eradicate the people who relied on them is... insane.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bison_hunting#19th-century_bis...

As per the history books, only ~100 remained at the end. And what I cannot find a definitive answer on is: are the current bison (not the ones for meat) all descendants of those 100?

I do wonder, apart from money, how can a sw engineer contribute to this restoration effort?

View on HN

> The fact that this happened not because the animals are a nuisance, but to eradicate the people who relied on them is... insane.

A little of Column A, a little of Column B. The railroads sponsored a lot of bison hunters because the giant herds would block railroad tracks for hours (or days!) at a time. The famed "Buffalo Bill" Cody was one of these hunters. This largely predated General Sherman's bison eradication plan.

> I do wonder, apart from money, how can a sw engineer contribute to this restoration effort?

It may sound counter-intuitive, but eat bison! The bison's rebound in the most recent 25 years (~30k in 2000 vs ~500k in 2017) is due in large part to ranchers realizing they're profitable.

> It may sound counter-intuitive, but eat bison!

So if I want more Scarlett Johanssons…

And give Ted Turner his due. He did it partially for meat for Ted’s Montana Grill

https://tedturnerreserves.com/press/american-buffalo/

For sure! I have worked with the Vermejo staff, and they are wonderful people.

There has been a fair amount of interbreeding with cattle, which means that the current genetic diversity is not as bottlenecked as you would expect, but also means that most existing bison are not "pure bison".

While the population was thought to drop to 100, there were several other herds discovered, the lowest the population ever got was probably closer to 1000 than 100.

You might be interested in the book "Empire of the Summer Moon"

>> https://scgwynne.com/product/empire-of-the-summer-moon

Although I will strongly caution you that there are some very disturbing details in the book that relate to how some people have mistreated/dehumanized other people. Definitely not okay for children to be reading.

The book touches on how the buffalo were hunted, and the types of 'characters' that excelled at it.

That is, without a doubt, one of the most depressing and horrific images I have ever seen.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com