Daily Nature Fix: From Extinction to the National Mammal (Original Photos)

Hi steem world. Today's daily nature tidbit is the recently crowned US national mammal: The bison.  These 2000+lb beasts are one of my favorite land mammals.  These photos are from a herd we stumbled upon in Yellowstone.  They seem pretty chill, but don't let them fool you; these guys can run up to 30mph if they want.

Fortunately, they were in no mood to do any running when we saw them on a hot September day.  In May of this year President Obama signed them into officially being the national mammal of the United States.  It's hard to believe we almost hunted these awesome creatures into extinction in the late 19th and early 20th century.  From a population of 30 to 60 million bison, we hunted them down until there were only 80 or left in the wild in 1889.  We decimated the once great herds in only 4 decades.... proving, once again, how destructive humans can be and how good we are at fucking up the very planet we live on.  Luckily, some conservationists realized we were about to lose these animals for good and began protecting them.  The government even tasked the Army to protect the 23 remaining bison of yellowstone from poachers.  Their efforts worked.  Today there are around 500,000 American bison in existence... though most of these are domestically raised by private owners.  There are an estimated 30,000 free-range bison in national parks and preserves and an estimated 15,000 truly wild bison.

Thanks for reading and make sure to follow me for original nature posts each and every day! @customnature

- Adam