Bison and the National Park Service Centennial
Julie Larsen Maher ©WCS
The American Bison Coalition (ABC) is excited to join the National Park Service (NPS) as it celebrates its 100th Anniversary.
Find Your Bison!
As part of the celebration—and leading up to National Bison Day on November 5, 2016—the ABC is asking everyone to tweet, post on Instagram or Facebook, or send us your best pictures and stories about bison. Pictures can be taken at a national park, wildlife refuge, zoo or anyplace that you find a bison. Make sure to use the hashtag #NationalMammal in all your posts. We'll take some of the best images and stories and share them here and on the @BisonCoalition Twitter feed.
Bison in Your National Parks
Bison, America's new National Mammal, have been an important species to the NPS from the very beginning. Yellowstone National Park, America's first, is the only place in the United States where bison have roamed freely since prehistoric times. Today, the NPS emblem contains the image of a bison.
At the turn of the 19th century, bison were almost extinct, with only about 1,000 animals remaining of the tens of millions that had once thundered across North America, mostly in the care of western ranchers. Working with these ranchers, Native American tribes, private companies and the U.S. government, a handful of these bison were shipped back east to what is now the Bronx Zoo by the American Bison Society. In 1913, 14 bison bred at the Zoo were returned to another of the country's first national parks, Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota. You can read more about this story of bison at Wind Cave.
Today, the NPS manages nine bison herds in nine national parks across the western United States. Go visit one, take a picture of your #NationalMammal, and post it!
National Parks with Bison Herds
- Badlands National Park South Dakota
- Chickasaw National Recreation Area Oklahoma
- Grand Canyon National Park Arizona
- Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Kansas
- Theodore Roosevelt National Park North Dakota
- Wind Cave National Park South Dakota
- Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve Alaska
- Yellowstone National Park Wyoming, Idaho and Montana
- Grand Teton National Park Wyoming
AZA Zoos with Bison
- Baton Rouge Zoo (LA)
- Bergen County Zoo (NJ)
- Bramble Park Zoo* (SD)
- Bronx Zoo - Wildlife Conservation Society* (NY)
- Brookfield Zoo - Chicago Zoological Society* (IL)
- Buffalo Zoo (NY)
- Buttonwood Park Zoo (MA)
- Caldwell Zoo (TX)
- Chahinkapa Zoo (ND)
- Columbus Zoo (OH)
- Como Park Zoo and Conservatory (MN)
- Connecticut Beardsley Zoo (CT)
- Dakota Zoo (ND)
- David Traylor Zoo of Emporia (KS)
- Denver Zoo* (CO)
- Detroit Zoo (MI)
- Elmwood Park Zoo (PA)*
- Fossil Rim (TX)
- Great Plains Zoo (SD)
- Henry Vilas Zoo (WI)
- Houston Zoo* (TX)
- Hutchinson Zoo* (KS)
- Lee G. Simmons Conservation Park & Wildlife Safari (NE)
- Lee Richardson Zoo (KS)
- Lehigh Valley Zoo* (PA)
- Minnesota Zoo (MN)
- National Zoo (DC)
- New Zoo and Adventure Park (WI)
- North Carolina Zoo* (NC)
- Oakland Zoo - Action for Wildlife* (CA)
- Potawatomi Zoo (IN)
- Pueblo Zoo (CO)
- Riverside Discovery Center (NE)
- Roosevelt Park Zoo (ND)
- Rosamond Gifford Zoo at Burnet Park (NY)
- Roger Williams Park Zoo (RI)
- Salisbury Zoo (MD)
- Sedgwick County Zoo (KS)
- Sunset Zoo* (KS)
- The Wilds (OH)
- Virginia Zoo (VA)
- Wildlife Safari (OR)
*Denotes an American Bison Coalition member