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028 - Part II Chapter 7 Preservation of the Species from Absolute Extinction · Extermination of the American Bison

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty seven of the Extermination of the American Bison.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit liprivox dot org. Recording by Avayi in December two
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  Speaker 1: thousand fourteen. The Extermination of the American Bison by William T. Hornaday,
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  Speaker 1: Part two, Chapter seven, Preservation of the species from absolute extinction.
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  Speaker 1: There is reason to fear that unless the United States
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  Speaker 1: Government takes the matter in hand and makes a special
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  Speaker 1: effort to prevent it, the pure blood bison will be
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  Speaker 1: lost irretrievably through mixture with domestic breeds and through in
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  Speaker 1: and in breeding. The fate of the Yellowstone Park heard is,
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  Speaker 1: to say the least highly uncertain. A distinguished Senator who
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  Speaker 1: is deeply interested in legislation for the protection of the
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  Speaker 1: national park reservation has declared that the pressure from railway corporations,
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  Speaker 1: which are seeking a foothold in the park, has become
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  Speaker 1: so great and so aggressive that he fears the park
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  Speaker 1: will eventually be broken up. In any such event, the
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  Speaker 1: destruction of the herd of park buffaloes would be one
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  Speaker 1: of the very first results. If the park is properly maintained. However,
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  Speaker 1: it is to be hoped that the buffaloes now in
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  Speaker 1: it will remain there and increase indefinitely. As yet, there
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  Speaker 1: are only two captive buffaloes in the possession of the government,
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  Speaker 1: that is, those in the Department of Living Animals of
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  Speaker 1: the National Museum, presented by the Honorable E. G. Blackford
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  Speaker 1: of New York. The buffaloes now in the zoological gardens
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  Speaker 1: of the country are but few in number, and unless
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  Speaker 1: special pains be taken to prevent it by means of
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  Speaker 1: judicious exchanges from time to time, these will rapidly deteriorate
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  Speaker 1: in size and within a comparatively short time run out
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  Speaker 1: entirely through continued in and in breeding. It is said
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  Speaker 1: that even the wild hour oxen the forests of Lithuania
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  Speaker 1: are decreasing in size and in number from this cause.
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  Speaker 1: With private owners of captive buffaloes, the temptations to produce
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  Speaker 1: cross breeds will be so great that it is more
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  Speaker 1: than likely the breeding of pure blood buffaloes will be neglected. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: unless some stockmen like mister C. J. Jones, takes particular
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  Speaker 1: pains to protect his full blood buffaloes, and keep the
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  Speaker 1: breed absolutely pure. In twenty years, there will not be
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  Speaker 1: a pure blood animal of that species on any stock
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  Speaker 1: farm in this country. Under existing conditions. The constant tendency
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  Speaker 1: of the numerous domestic forms is to absorb and utterly
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  Speaker 1: obliterate the few wild ones, if we may judge from
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  Speaker 1: the examples set as by European governments. It is clearly
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  Speaker 1: the duty of our government to act in this matter,
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  Speaker 1: and act promptly with a degree of liberality and promptness,
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  Speaker 1: which cannot be otherwise than highly gratifying to every American
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  Speaker 1: citizen and every friend of science throughout the world. The
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  Speaker 1: fiftieth Congress, at its last session, responded to the call
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  Speaker 1: made upon it and voted two hundred thousand dollars for
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  Speaker 1: the establishment of a National Zoological Park in the District
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  Speaker 1: of Columbia on a grand scale. One of the leading
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  Speaker 1: purposes it is destined to serve is the preservation and
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  Speaker 1: breeding incomfortable and so far as space is concerned, luxurious
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  Speaker 1: captivity of a number of fine specimens of every species
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  Speaker 1: of American quadruped, now threatened with extermination. At least eight
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  Speaker 1: or ten buffaloes of pure breed, should be secured very
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  Speaker 1: soon by the Zoological Park Commission by gift, if possible,
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  Speaker 1: and cared for with special reference to keeping the breed
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  Speaker 1: absolutely pure and keeping the herd from deteriorating and dying
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  Speaker 1: out through in and inbreeding. The total expense would be
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  Speaker 1: trifling in comparison with the importance of the end to
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  Speaker 1: be gained, and in that way we might in a
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  Speaker 1: small measure atone for our neglect of the means which
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  Speaker 1: would have protected the Great herds from extinction. In this way,
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  Speaker 1: by proper management, it will be not only possible but
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  Speaker 1: easy to preserve fine living representatives of this important species
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  Speaker 1: for centuries to come. The result of continuing inbreeding is
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  Speaker 1: certain extinction. Its progress may be so slow as to
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  Speaker 1: make no impression upon the mind of a herd owner,
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  Speaker 1: but the end is only a question of time. The
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  Speaker 1: fate of a majority of the herds of British wild
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  Speaker 1: cattle boss Urus warn us what to expect with the
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  Speaker 1: American bison under similar circumstances of the fourteen herds of
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  Speaker 1: wild cattle, which were in existence in England and Scotland
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  Speaker 1: during the early part of the present century. Direct descendants
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  Speaker 1: of the wild herds found in Great Britain. Nine have
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  Speaker 1: become totally extinct through inbreeding. The five herds remaining are
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  Speaker 1: those at Somerford Park, Blickling, hall Wood, Pastwick, Chartley and Chillingham.
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  Speaker 1: End of Section twenty seven