Ted Turner's bison help save historic Texas herd

Six years ago, inbreeding threatened to destroy the last herd of southern Plains bison. Only 53 were left, and breeders were having trouble getting females to carry their calves to term. Tests showed that unless something was done to increase the diversity of genes in the historic herd, all the animals would be gone within 50 years. Researchers now say a donation of a few bulls from media mogul Ted Turner seems to have done the trick. The herd has increased to 75 bison, and while more work to preserve the animals remains, there's no longer an immediate risk of extinction. Bison are the largest land animals in North America, and as many as 60 million once roamed the Great Plains. When the Transcontinental Railroad was built across the United States in the 1800s, the bison were split into what was known as the Northern and the Southern herds. The Southern herd included animals from Texas, eastern New Mexico, eastern Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and southern Nebraska. The herd that exists today was started in the 1880s by Charles Goodnight, one of the most prosperous cattlemen in the American West. His wife urged him to save five calves he had captured at a time when hunters were killing bison by the hundreds of thousands for their hides and meat and to crush American Indian tribes who depended on the animals for food and clothing...more