USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -By the early 1880s there were only a few free ranging bison left. After the great slaughter of the American bison during the 1800s, the number of bison remaining alive in all of North America declined to as low as 541, with as few as 300 in the United States.

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: -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.

Detailed explanation-4: -A pile of bison skulls prior to being ground into fertilizer in the mid-1870s. By 1886, less than 1, 000 bison remained in North America.