The Extermination of the American Bison

Illustration of a bison from the 1889 publication of Extermination of the American Bison.
Illustration of a bison from the 1889 publication of Extermination.
Title page

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]

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]

  1. ^ "Hornaday, William Temple". The National Cyclopedia of American Biography. Vol. 4. New York: James T. White. 1893. p. 192.
  2. ^ a b c d e Thompson, Robert Ellis; Barker, Wharton, eds. (May 24, 1890). "Science Notes". The American. 20 (511): 115. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  3. ^ a b C., W. A. (February 1890). "Review Department". The Journal of Comparative Medicine and Veterinary Archives. 11 (2): 141. Public Domain 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. Public Domain 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.