Demise of the great buffalo herds?

[scotjute]

Have read many times that the great buffalo herds were utterly decimated primarily by the hide hunters, with meat hunters also taking their toll.
I just finished reading an article in a black powder book by Sam Fadala (spelling ?) where he states that brucellosis (the cow version of V.D.) disease was the main reason the buffalo herds disappeared, not the hunters. Does anyone know which is the "more correct" answer?

 

[Smoke]

Could go either way. No doubt Bangs could have a devastating effect, thats why ranchers have worked so hard to irradicate it.

But I have read countless books validating the great stacks of hides to be found in the railyards.

I haven't found any accounts of large numbers of found laying dead that hadn't been shot and skinned.

I'd be interested to hear anothers opinion of bangs on the buffalo.

 

[Joe Demko]

According to a couple of different sources I've read, the buffalo were also systematically slaughtered as part of the military campaign against the Indian tribes. Removal of the buffalo starved them into submission when they couldn't be brought to heel through direct military means.

 

[mete]

I have seen photos of huge stacks of hides and of bones so they certainly killed off many. The objective was to force the indians to be dependant on the military. At one point the are said to have killed 10,000 in a three month period. By the time most of the " buffalo guns" and cartridges came out the buffalo were already gone. Disease may have played a lesser part..... By the way there been a recent report on lions in africa ,the numbers are only 10 % of that of 1980. While attributed in the past to habitate destruction they have found a virus that is the equivalent of HIV . This is the major cause of lower numbers.

 

[KMKeller]

Golgo-13 has the right of it. Meat and hide hunters took their toll, but the main slaughter was done to starve the Native American tribes whose existence depended on them.

 

[H&Hhunter]

I just finished reading an article in a black powder book by Sam Fadala (spelling ?) where he states that brucellosis (the cow version of V.D.) disease was the main reason the buffalo herds disappeared, not the hunters. Does anyone know which is the "more correct" answer?

I would therorize that Burcellosis has always been a part of the population cycle of the natural buffalo herd. However combined with steady overhunting/eradication attempts it was just one more nail in the coffin of the natural buffalo herds of the great American West.

Burcellocis is still present in many wild bovine herd throughout the world and as of yet has failed to eradicate them.

 

[Glamdring]

My BA is in Anthropology. This is something we covered more than once. I found it interesting. From what I remember the evidence supports disease and habitat reduction as prime causes.

One thing to remember about diseases is that you don't need a "new" disease to cause problems. Changes in population density or interaction rates between groups or increase in stress levels (diet, hunting pressure, climate, etc) can change mortality rate for existing disease.

 

[scotjute]

Glamdring,

Habitat reduction : but wasn't the habitat still largely there when the herds were ended around 1878-1880?

IF the brucellosis was running rampant in the herd, the result would be that
the buffalo birth-rate would be way down, as (at least in cattle) the disease tends to cause the cow to abort the fetus too early. Hence with a declining birth-rate and a greatly increased hunting pressure, the buffalo were divided into a north and south herd, and then each was basically wiped out by the hunters. However form what I've read of the hunting pressure, it was such that even with an undiminished birth-rate (no disease) the herd would still have been wiped out by 1885-90.

Secondly how do we know that buffalo in the 1870's actually had brucellosis? Where there actual test done back then that confirm it? Seems like a more likely scenario is that some of the survivors of the great herds caught it from exposure to cattle after 1900, somehow it was diagnosed, and then the theory springs forth that the reason the buffalo were nearly wiped out was brucellosis, not excessive slaughter.

 

[kentucky bucky]

Disease killed more Native Americans than bullets.........why not buffalo?

 

[Selfdfenz]

I could be wrong but I believe the increased rate of spontaneous abortion is seen with the 1st pregnacy after infection. Not so sure subsequent pregnancies might not just go to term. Net effect=overall fertility of the infected herd takes a tip to a lower level than in an uninfected herd but extinction seems very unlikely to me.

I have also heard the Yellow Stone herd is infected and has been for who knows how long. That herd seems not to be going extinct but is shot down if they leave the Park IIRC otherwise they have little in the Park to reduce their numbers.

I also believe cattlemen in areas where there are infected bison fear infection of their cows from the buffs in the area. BUT I do not know how it its transmitted for buffs to cows or in reverse. I assume it occurs from sharing the same water and pastures.

I think something besides this disease accounted for the massive reduction of the plains buffaloe (people, trains, hunters, change of land use etc). My pet theory is the passenger pigeon had some as-of-today-unclear co-dependancy with the buffs and that is what accounted for their demise rather than over hunting and change of land use.

S-

 

[cdbeaver]

Construction of the transcontinental railroad also contributed to the demise of large buffalo herds.

Railroad bosses hired professional hunters to provide meat to feed the hundreds of people who worked to lay tracks from Nebraska westward to Utah. History accounts of that era relate that hundreds of buffalo were killed almost daily to provide food for the workers. I believe that Buffalo Bill Cody was one of the hunters involved.