The Last Wild Bison
by M Spadecaller
Title
The Last Wild Bison
Artist
M Spadecaller
Medium
Digital Art - Mixed Media & Photographic Art
Description
Each winter, Yellowstone’s bison move from the high country in groups of a few dozen, seeking better feeding grounds. Evidence of migrating wild bison is carved into the American landscape, where the passage of vast herds shaped the land. Thousands of pounding hooves formed wide corridors called buffalo traces, as the beasts followed watersheds and ridgelines to new territory.
These places have long been purged of wild buffalo. By the 20th century, the teaming mass of tens of millions of wild bison were reduced to just 23 fugitives, holed up in a valley a few miles in what is now known as Yellowstone National Park. Despite this portentous past, today the American buffalo is considered a great success story by some environmentalists. After more than a century of conservation efforts, there are roughly a half million bison in the United States, though their lives are strikingly different than their ancestors. More than 96 percent are livestock, raised for meat and about 20,000 live behind fences.
However, the bison that occupy Yellowstone are different; they are the last of their kind. They exist as their forebears did, in this tiny slice of the country, where they escaped extermination. They fight, graze, and multiply without human intervention. They fall through ice and drown in lakes and rivers. Grizzly bears and wolves take down the old and sick. And in winter, when the grass dwindles, they roam and forage for food across the reserve. They are truly America’s last wild bison. “The Last Wild Bison,” is a mixed media and digital composite created in Spadecaller’s Florida studio on 12/18/2019.
Uploaded
December 18th, 2019
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