The United States Department of Interior, whose seal bears the iconic image of the buffalo
(Bison bison) says buffalo are no longer threatened by extinction, but "more substantial work remains to more fully restore the species to its cultural and ecological role on appropriate landscapes." It urged cooperation from all interested parties to promote the survival of healthy, wild herds. The report was welcomed by conservationists as a positive sign the federal government is willing to cooperate in herd and habitat restoration. In 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt and others convened a group at the Bronx Zoo interested in saving the buffalo from extinction. An animal that roamed the American continent in tens of millions from the Pleistocene era was nearly exterminated by man. By the turn of the 20th century, plains bison numbered less than 1100. The DOI report outlines the current status of 10,000 wild bison in 17 herds in 12 states or about one-third the number in conservation herds. Most bison live in commercial herds. Full restoration, meaning an initial wild population in excess of a million animals will mean the rehabilitation and closure to development of large tracts of land in the west. Those opportunities exist now with enough commitment from governments, tribes, landowners, and conservationists who want the wild buffalo, Spirit of the West, to return to its rightful place on the American plains.
