Bringing Back the Buffalo
This large animal once roamed North American prairies in herds of tens of millions.
What is the buffalo (or bison)?
Buffalo droppings help spread these around the prairie.
What are seeds?
Native Americans depended on buffalo for meat, clothing, and this.
What is shelter (or tools, depending on emphasis)?
Jason Baldes studied this subject at university.
What is Environmental Science?
Buffalo eat grasses, allowing more space for these plants to grow.
What are wildflowers?
The U.S. government encouraged the killing of buffalo in the 1800s to make life harder for this group of people.
Who are Native Americans?
These two predators may benefit from the return of buffalo, since they eat them.
What are wolves and grizzly bears?
European-American settlers hunted buffalo for this recreational reason.
What is sport?
Baldes is a member of this Native American tribe.
What is the Eastern Shoshone Tribe?
Buffalo help create mini habitats for frogs and insects when they do this.
What is roll in dust (make wallows)?
As a child, Jason Baldes rode across the Wind River Reservation with his father, who had this job.
What is a biologist?
The return of buffalo may help increase the number of these colorful flowering plants.
What are wildflowers?
This drastic reduction in buffalo numbers happened over about 100 years.
What is near extinction (or almost all were killed)?
In 2016, this number of buffalo were released on Wind River land.
What is ten?
These two animal groups benefit directly from increased wildflowers.
What are bees and butterflies?
Jason Baldes worked with the Shoshone Tribe and other groups to reintroduce buffalo to this reservation.
What is the Wind River Indian Reservation?
With more wildflowers, populations of these pollinators may also rise.
What are bees and butterflies?
Before settlers arrived, this type of balance kept the buffalo population stable.
What is ecological balance (or natural predators and hunting)?
The goal is to grow the buffalo population to this number.
What is 1,000?
These flying animals may increase in number due to more available frogs and insects.
What are birds?
When buffalo roll in the dust, they create these shallow pits that can become mini-ponds for insects and frogs.
What are wallows?
Bringing buffalo back may increase the number of birds that eat these two animals.
What are insects and frogs?
In what year were ten buffalo released
to the Wind River prairie ecosystem?
What is 2016?
Jason Baldes believes buffalo can help both the ecosystem and this.
What is his community?
When different species increase, the overall level of this in the ecosystem rises.
What is biodiversity?