A Prairie Ghost
I’ll never forget the day when an old self-proclaimed “river–rat” came by to show me some bones he had found in the Illinois River when the water was particularly low. Hollow eye sockets stared back at me from the metal washtub in the trunk of his car. Curved horns curved back from the large skull. It definitely looked wild and ancient… a ghost from Illinois’ past. A few pictures and measurements sent to the Illinois State Museum confirmed that it was a bison skull. Later, we were able to have the skull carbon dated and it dates back to around 1690, about the same time that first Europeans were entering the Illinois River valley.
Bison in Illinois have a long and somewhat unclear history. It had long been believed that bison migrated into Illinois from the west relatively recently (in the last 1,000 years or so), but a lot of that evidence was based on human archeological evidence. It is likely that bison were here earlier, but humans were simply not hunting, or utilizing their bones or hides, until a later time. Some bison remains recently carbon dated indicate that bison have been here since the end of the last ice age. Around 9,000 years ago, prairie became more prevalent on the landscape as the ice retreated and grasslands sprang up in wake of the retreating ice sheets. It only makes sense that new fields of green would be enticing to grazing herds of bison.
What we do know, is that bison were being utilized by the native people in Illinois when first contact was made by Europeans in the late 1600s. We also know that the bison were all but wiped out in Illinois by the time it became a state. By the 1820s there were none left in Illinois.
As the Great Plains of the west became the breadbasket of the United States, the vast bison herds became relegated to marginal habitat… forced to eke out a meager living in grassy mountain passes. By 1900, the number of wild bison was at an all-time low. The once thundering herds were gone. Today, fewer than 15,000 bison roam wild upon the unfenced landscape. Even though wild bison are rare, there are close to 500,000 bison to be found in public and private herds throughout North America. A trip to Wildlife Prairie Park will allow a visitor to glimpse one of these herds.
Recent genetic studies of our remaining bison show an interesting dilemma. Bison are closely related to domestic cattle, and can hybridize with them. Studies indicate that of the 500,000 bison in public and private herds, only between 15,000 and 25,000 are not some type of bison-cattle hybrids. So on one hand, “pure” genetic stock of bison is still quite rare. On the other hand, the ability for genetic hybridization is one reason that modern bison have not suffered the “genetic bottleneck” that has plagued some other endangered species recovery programs.
Recently, The Nature Conservancy has introduced a herd of bison to Nachusa Grasslands in northern Illinois. One of the goals of this re-introduction was not to merely have bison as an attraction, but to actually have bison play a role in the ecological management of the grassland itself. The bison and the prairie are one… each influences the other. This is one of the first attempts to utilize native grazing as a tool for managing native grasslands in our state. The hope is that both the prairie and the bison herd will benefit, like two long-lost friends finding each other in a sunny field. The bison at Nachusa have come from one of the most genetically pure herds left in the wild. Bill Kleiman is the Project Director for The Nature Conservancy’s Nachusa Grasslands Preserve. He will be presenting a program “How the Bison Came Back” at 7 p.m. May 13 at Forest Park Nature Center in Peoria Heights. The program is sponsored by the Peoria Audubon Society and is free and open to the public.
As I think back to the bison skull I saw staring back at me, I wonder just what thoughts must have gone through the mind of that animal. What sights must have been viewed through those now empty eyes. It’s been over 200 years since any wild bison has looked out upon a native Illinois prairie and greeted a sunrise. That’s too long. For the sake of both our native prairies and bison, it’s a reintroduction that I hope will continue on in a long-lasting friendship.