USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -When the Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869, it accelerated the decimation of the species and by 1900, naturalists estimated less than 1, 000 bison remained. By the late 1880s, the endless herds of bison were wiped out and just a few hundred individuals remained.

Detailed explanation-2: -The decline of the buffalo is largely a nineteenth-century story. The size of the herds was affected by predation (by humans and wolves), disease, fires, climate, competition from horses, the market, and other factors.

Detailed explanation-3: -The destruction of the bison had two important consequences: It left the vast grasslands open to the herds of cattle moving north from Texas. Now cattle ranches appeared in the north. More importantly, though, it robbed the Plains Tribes of the one resource that allowed them to move across the plains.

Detailed explanation-4: -Then the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad accelerated the decimation of the species. Massive hunting parties began to arrive in the West by train, with thousands of men packing . 50 caliber rifles, and leaving a trail of buffalo carnage in their wake.

Detailed explanation-5: -Railways, rifles, and an international market for buffalo hides led to “the Great Slaughter” from about 1820 to 1880, when the bison population plummeted from 30-60 million (estimates vary) to fewer than 1, 000 animals by the 1890s.