【紀錄片.Smithsonian.最後的美洲野牛.The.Last.Buffalo.2016】
美洲野牛（Bison，又稱Buffalo）是北美洲體型最大的哺乳動物和世界上最大野牛之一，可維持每小時60公裡的奔跑速度。本片講述在不到一百年的時間裡，野牛數量從三千萬頭驟降到數百頭的原因。
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.
美洲野牛（學名：Bison bison），又名美洲水牛或犎牛，是偶蹄目牛科哺乳動物，也是北美洲體型最大的哺乳動物和世界上最大野牛之一。儘管體型龐大，仍可維持60公裡的奔跑速度。主要群體由雌牛和幼牛組成；雄性會另外組成單身漢群，只有交配時才會聚集在一起。平時以嫩莖晘草為食，無領域性。美洲森林野牛一般被認為是其亞種，但分類地位仍有爭議。最近根據最新DNA研究顯示，它和歐洲野牛親源關係比所知還要接近。
體型龐大的美洲森林野牛是北美洲最大的亞種，它的體型大過亞洲野牛和野生水牛，後兩者主要出現在印度。野牛大量集體居住在美國和加拿大的大平原，由加拿大遠北的大奴湖至南面的墨西哥，再由奧勒崗州東部至大西洋一帶。其兩個亞種分別是美洲草原野牛（Bison bison bison），體型較小和有較圓滑的背部隆肉，和美洲森林野牛，體型較大和較高和方形的背部隆肉。
雖然美洲野牛也稱美洲水牛，但實際它和水牛或非洲水牛相似地方不大。
The American bison or simply bison (Bison bison), also commonly known as the American buffalo or simply buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed North America in vast herds. Their historical range, by 9000 BC, is described as the great bison belt, a tract of rich grassland that ran from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico, east to the Atlantic Seaboard (nearly to the Atlantic tidewater in some areas) as far north as New York and south to Georgia and per some sources down to Florida, with sightings in North Carolina near Buffalo Ford on the Catawba River as late as 1750. They became nearly extinct by a combination of commercial hunting and slaughter in the 19th century and introduction of bovine diseases from domestic cattle. With a population in excess of 60 million in the late 18th century, the species was down to 541 animals by 1889. Recovery efforts expanded in the mid-20th century, with a resurgence to roughly 500,000 animals today, largely restricted to a few national parks and reserves. 作者：@猛獁君侯