USA - Nebraska - Nebraska Buffalo

NEBRASKA BUFFALO

North American Bison once roamed the plains of central and western Nebraska in large herds. Now only a few herds remain, among them one at the Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge, northeast of Valentine, Nebraska.

Sent by Debbie from Omaha in Nebraska, USA.

The change in the Nebraska landscape was dramatic. In just a few short years, cattle replaced the American bison as the leading, cloven-hoofed, grass-eating mammal on the Great Plains. In 1850, millions of bison ranged the grasslands and were the main natural resource for the region’s American Indians.

In 1868, the steel rails of the transcontinental railroad created a barrier that bison did not like to cross. That divided the great herd into northern and southern herds (read more).