when was the American bison hunted close to extinction?

Answer 1

American bison were hunted almost to extinction in the 19th century and were reduced to very small numbers by the mid-1880s. One major cause was the governmental idea of killing off the Plains Indian food source--which was the bison. The Government promoted bison hunting for various reasons, the main one being economics.

* The herds formed the basis of the economies of local Plains tribes of Native Americans for whom the bison were a primary food source; without bison, the Native Americans would be forced to leave or starve.

* Herds of these large animals on tracks could damage locomotives when the trains failed to stop in time.

* Herds often took shelter in the artificial cuts formed by the grade of the track winding though hills and mountains in harsh winter conditions. As a result, the herds could delay a train for days.

Answer 2

After the end of the US Civil War, westward expansion restarted, and consequently 2 things came up:
1. Railroad lines were run to connect the east coast with the interior (which required food for the workers laying the track), and
2. Conflicts with the local tribes became more frequent and more intense as they kept getting pushed off their lands. It became 'official' policy for the bison herds to be exterminated in order to deny the plains Indians their primary source of livelihood, since they were among the fiercest opponents and hardest to bring to battle by the army.
By the 1890s there weren't too many bison left. If it helps to put it into perspective, this was the age of the 'great hunting', when the almost unimaginable numbers of animals were slaughtered for every reason from market sales to 'just for fun'. Huge flocks of birds were shot out just like the bison, for instance, so that by the 1920s pretty much all of the formerly gigantic groups of animals were gone or on the way out. Nowadays we can get some idea of what it may have been like with the huge flocks of blackbirds that form up in the fall and winter in the US, but that still appears to be just a pale shadow of what it was like back then.

Answer 3

It was most probably in the late 1800s when the trains would go through the plains area and they were being shot from the trains. Most are now residing in Yellowstone Park where they kill people more than bears (bears 12 vs bison 56 people between 1978-1992). They look slow but they can outrun a human and can jump barbed wire fences. Many are being raised for food consumption as they are lower in cholesterol and fat than regular cows.