Buffalo Picture

Ancient Buffalo picture galleries date back only to about 10,000 years ago. The ancestors of the present day Buffalos migrated to America from Eurasia over the Bering Strait that was a secure land bridge at that time. The American Bison replaced its larger relative, Bison priscus, which became extinct because of ecosystem changes and increased hunting pressure of humans. The American Bison of today was actually a dwarf form of the Bison priscus. Smaller animals were more agile and better adapted to human predation. They could survive and coexist with humans for many centuries.

Many ancient Buffalo picture galleries depict a method of hunting that humans used before the introduction of horses to America. Buffalos were herded by large groups of people into large chutes and stampeded over cliffs. Like all herding animals, Buffalos followed the leader and jumped from cliffs. Up to nowadays, the places of Bison jumps are preserved in several places in the USA and Canada. Another method was to drive a herd into a natural corral. Native Americans hunted Bisons for meat and hides. They used tough Bison meat for making pemmican (dried meat) and made clothes of their skins.

Buffalo picture galleries of the 16th and 17th centuries prove that these animals were hunted in large numbers. When Spanish horses were introduced to America, it became easy to get enough Bison meat to feed the whole tribe. Native Americans used Bison meat, pelts, sinew, grease, dung, hooves, and marrow.

In the 19th century, Buffalos were hunted almost to extinction by the settlers. In the 1880s, there were only a few hundred of Buffalos left. Buffalos were killed for their skins and tongues. The Government promoted Buffalo hunting in order to provide enough grazing areas for ranchers and their cattle and to weaken the population of Native Americans who relied on Buffalos as a primary food source. Eliminating Buffalos was good for the railroad industry, because trains could be delayed for several days by large herds. Many famous hunters of the 19th century killed many thousands of Buffalos. In Buffalo picture galleries of the late 19th century, we can see that meat of these animals was not used at all.