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Why the U.S. Army Guarded the 23 Remaining American Buffalo

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From: The Last Buffalo

Why the U.S. Army Guarded the 23 Remaining American Buffalo

Short | 02:35

In 1882, General Philip Sheridan's expedition to the protected buffalo haven in Yellowstone National Park revealed a gruesome reality: Poachers were continuing to slaughter the last remnants of America's big-game icon.

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For thousands of years, the Great Plains were home to countless numbers of American bison, but in the late 1800s, the number of bison dropped from nearly 30 million to just a few hundred in less than 100 years. What happened to place this national icon on the brink of extinction? Join us as we detail the events that led to this mass extermination. Then follow the story of William Temple Hornaday, a chief taxidermist at the Smithsonian Institution who headed west to hunt bison for the museum, but ended up saving the species instead.

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