The Extermination of the American Bison

The Extermination of the American Bison is a book by William Temple Hornaday first published in 1889 by the Government Printing Office.^[1] It was reprinted from a report Hornaday wrote for the Smithsonian Institution in the years 1886–87.^[2]

Illustration of a bison from the 1889 publication of Extermination.

Title page

Extermination contains an exhaustive account of bison ecology and the story of the near-entire destruction of the bison population in the United States.^[3] The book argues for the consequent necessity of protecting the small number of bison then in Yellowstone National Park.^[3]

The book is divided into three parts.^[4] The first relates to the habits, geographical distribution, and probable population of the bison before the European settlement of North America.^[2] The second describes the extermination of the animal by industrial-scale bison hunting. It argues that the speed of extermination has been increased by unnecessary slaughter and the lack of legal protection of the bison population, among other things.^[2] The third part describes the Smithsonian's 1886 expedition to Montana to obtain specimens for the National Museum of Natural History before bison went extinct in North America.^[2] A census of the animals known to exist in captivity on January 1, 1889, showed 256 specimens in the United States and abroad.^[2]

One contemporary writer notes that a number of scholars consider Extermination to be "the first important text of the American wildlife conservation movement".^[5]

See also

• Conservation of American bison

References

1. "Hornaday, William Temple". The National Cyclopedia of American Biography. Vol. 4. New York: James T. White. 1893. p. 192.
2. Thompson, Robert Ellis; Barker, Wharton, eds. (May 24, 1890). "Science Notes". The American. 20 (511): 115. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
3. C., W. A. (February 1890). "Review Department". The Journal of Comparative Medicine and Veterinary Archives. 11 (2): 141. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
4. L[ankester], R[ay] (May 1890). "Review of The Extermination of the American Bison". Nature. 42 (1070): 11–13. doi:10.1038/042011a0. ISSN 0028-0836. S2CID 4030715. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
5. Andrei, Mary Anne (September 2005). "The accidental conservationist: William T. Hornaday, the Smithsonian bison expeditions and the US National Zoo". Endeavour. 29 (3): 109–113. doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2005.05.002. PMID 16038976.

Further reading

• Hornaday, William Temple (1889). The Extermination of the American Bison. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution; Government Printing Office – via Project Gutenberg.