Buffalo Herds Roam and Pronghorns Play Near Santa Fe, New Mexico

On the road to and from Santa Fe, I drive past a herd of grazing bison. That sounds like a great sight, except that these particular bison, popularly but inaccurately known as buffalo, will soon end up dead on someone's dinner plate, because that's what they're raised for. Buffalo has become a "fad" meat because it's low in cholesterol and fat.

Today there are scattered bison herds in the United States and they number about 80,000. It's hard to believe that there were once around 60 million of them. Indians used to kill them for food, clothing, tools, weapons, blankets and shelter, but they were subsistence hunters and never took more than they needed. That was before settlers and hunters started migrating west and decimated bison just for fun or to clear space for their towns, farms and ranches. The tall-grass prairies where bison flourished were destroyed to grow human crops, and the mixed and short-grass plains became food for voracious and destructive domesticated cattle. Now you can only see captive bison ghettoized in various public parks, zoos and private ranges, such as Yellowstone National Park, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and Custer State Park. Bison are not considered endangered anymore even though there are far fewer than there once were. Sadly, some herds are still hunted when their population is considered to be too large for the area they are squeezed into and "surplus" bison are auctioned off to private interests.