@@gamervet7793 It's not virtue signaling to believe in climate change, it's believing in science and concern for fellow man and conservation at the same time. The point IS the irony you pointed out: that we've damaged the climate but didn't have much choice on whether we used fossil fuels or not. We were on the trajectory long before the harm was known, and since at least the great depression we've only had a choice between generating greenhouse gas or dying out.
@@jcarry5214 and science is not on your side.The climate has gone up only 1.4 degrees since 1850.fact. we are in the normal range for each cycle of the world. its gone up and down like this before without us. And it is, Your blaming fossil fuels but yet evrything we use today not just coal cars ect is fossil fuels. plastic to make green devices trubines, are made of and run on fossil fuels.not getting awqya from taht
Lot of respect for Steve. Even more after hearing this. Hearing him honestly say that he probably would’ve been one of the ones out there, killing them for a buck. And not trying to come off all high and mighty like oh I never would have.
Steve is so intelligent and so well researched. People can take whichever view they want (because that's freedom - despite what politicians want to do to said freedom), but it's objectively true that hunters respect nature more than the activists. The hunters don't hunt because they want to kill. They want to preserve the animals so there is both something to hunt and something to appreciate.
Cool video. The Bison on the Bison range are actually the descendents of Bison that the Salish Tribe brought back from the East side of the Rocky Mountains prior to European arrival there. The Salish found that they could get the Bison calves to nurse from a horse if they killed it's mother. They were trying to create their own Bison herd, as travelling east brought them into conflict with the Blackfoot who were vicious. Used to live a couple miles from the Bison Range. Every spring we would go and take part in the roundup and collect all the Bison. Give them vaccinations, seperate out the ones they are going to sell or send elsewhere to breed. A whole lot of the locals took part in helping the Bison Range back in the 80's.
The government looked at buffalo eradication as a way to weaken and push out the Native American populations. This fact should be included in this video
@@ComicsBryce im shocked and disgusted that this key part of the story was just omitted! Aboriginal peoples relied on the bison populations and they made use of EVERYTHING that was on the Buffalo, organs sinew brains tendons... It all has a use! The bison hunt encouragement was 100% something that was done with the knowledge that it would weaken the native people's power of resistance in their independence
steve please help the wildlife in my country philipines we almost lost the wildlife and environment. because people dont have a rule no one is educate about our wild life.
The Philipines is so poluted that, even if you tried to save your wildlife, there would be no habitat left for it. This is the new way that humans are transforming the land. You want chickens ? Raise them in a factory. Allocate parts of land to grow some crops to feed your chicken factories. It's a social thing, you value wildlife but at the same time, you value your comfort more then that. So you pollute, and exterminate.
@@simeonsalazar631 He wasn't being rude to you. He was saying that before you can fix your wildlife problem, you need to fix the mindset that your people have about their environment/wildlife. It's like this, if your house was burning down, you would not start trying to redecorate your home. Why not? Because your house is on fire. Put out the fire first.
The story of the buffalo is a sad and very complex tale. It's ironic that the very entity (the government) that advocated the total destruction of the buffalo to "control" the Indians ended up saving the few that were left. However, had the buff's not been slaughtered they would have significantly decreased in numbers as the plains became "civilized" and farmers and ranchers took over vast amounts of their food source. Cattle ranchers would never have tolerated sharing the vast prairie grasses with bison who would have competed with their cattle for the grass. We should all be thankful that there are those that have an intense interest in saving and building herds of the majestic Bison.
Actually, the military understood. They understood that wiping out the buffalo would destroy the "Indian problem," and thereby the Indian way of life. The railroad was part of that, along with the westward expansion of an American continent entire (which was Jeffersons dream...as white Americans' right of ownership)....from sea to shining see.
I feel like he fails to mention that it was purposely done in an effort to eradicate native peoples. Also, how it was the native people who were largely responsible for saving the species. Even now they are leading the fight to reestablish bison herds across the continent.
Over 1 billion was the number. Why do we minimize the destruction.? Industry cannot tell us we could live sustainably forever. It's to profitable to the average population.
See even people like this, who are suppose to give you a "historical account" of the Buffalos fate and why they were killed. They tell you only half truths... Some were for meat, most were for Sport, and then came the Slaughter for their hides in which they would kill as many as they could, skin them, and leave the carcasses out to rot. Because the only value was in the hide , not the meat. If your going to tell a story... tell the whole story.
They were hunters, but in the same way that commercial fishermen on a huge trawler are still fishermen. It was due to things like this that we eliminated that whole class of hunters. There is no longer any such thing as a commercial hunter in North America, as far as I'm aware.
Steve Rinella seems like a genuinely humble guy, and make no mistake, he is a deep thinker. We have to take into consideration the social and cultural perspectives from that time period. I'm not a hunter but I've enjoyed watching Steve's adventures in the wilderness.
His biggest achievement is telling people like you about our culture so we can both go forward and protect the only thing that truly makes our country and that’s the outdoors. ❤
I feel incredibly thankful to be alive while Steve Rinella is on this earth. He's one of the most intelligent men I've ever heard speak. And he's a pure soul
I was lucky enough to harvest a Buffalo on public land last year and it is something I will always cherish. I am actually cooking some up right now as I watch this video lol.
@@martinmiller516 this is one of the good things about living in Utah. You can get the chance to draw for a buffalo hunt on BLM land. Two parts of the state have around 1,000 head of wild Buffalo. only state that has genetic pure buffalo hunts. Wyoming has a hunt with genetic pure buffalo hunt also but it is guided hunt on herds that leave Yellowstone so not the same.
In Tennessee my sportsman’s license cost me $170 a year. That gives me access to pretty much all the hunting and fishing available in Tennessee. To my understanding Tennessee is one of the only states that fully funds our wildlife agency with hunting licenses dollars
@@FellsApprentice as terrible as it is to have to spend so much money to enjoy our wildlife I guess I would rather it be funded mostly off of my license instead of everyone’s tax dollars because it takes the PETA type people from having say so in what we enjoy
These people don't have a brain if it wasn't for American hunters half the US native species would be gone the problem was the US army and the European market and rich city pokes wanting nice leather goods and furs the so called hunters of the time where just sport and business men who had the heart of a coward
I’m not a hunter, but I sure have enjoyed watching and learning about hunting from Steven Rinella. From a layman’s perspective, it doesn’t seem that killing and harvesting buffalo is really even hunting; not in the sense of hunting deer, elk or other elusive animals. Buffalo, as Steven has pointed out in other shows, will just stand their, even after a Buffalo was just downed right next to them. The right word, to me, is not hunting, but slaughtering in open fields.
Why do most indigenous people the world over understand harmony with nature without government regulation, where as most of the so called civilized people do not? Why are the indigenous people the world over not being permitted to lead the way on correcting these problems let alone, left to live in traditional ways outside of externally imposed "civilized" culture? Eventually it will be human numbers that plummet, in fact some so called civilized folks are working towards just that. There is no retrospect in 100 years if you are extinct at the hand of your society's own profiteers.
When Europeans came to the Americas, they saw the Bison and assumed they were Old World Buffalo. The difference isn't necessarily what you think. Buffalo comes from the Greek word "boubalos/ βουβαλoσ" (spelling could be off; not sure if the omicron should be elongated into the omega or not. I studied koine Greek, not modern Greek) meaning 'wild ox.' You are correct in saying that there is a difference, however we often say it not because it is etymologically correct, rather because it is a new word meaning based off how language changes with culture. It's the same reason Native Americans are commonly called 'American Indians.' No one thinks they are true Indians. However, word usage provides word meaning. Language is not static and separate from cultural usage, even if we would like it to be.
I usually wouldn't nitpick over such things, but it did annoy me that the first shot in the doc is a sign that says "NATIONAL BISON RANGE" and the narrator still calls them buffalo.
The U.S. Government paid for the elimination of the buffalo, post Civil War. This was done to subdue the Plains Indians, pure and simple. By forcing the Plains Tribes into reservations, the Great Plains could be opened to settlement, agriculture and industry.
And look at the area now, just like other areas of the U.S. where native tribes used to live; now dumpy and run down, with many places inhabited by uncouth people.
There weren’t that many soldiers on the entire planet. There were still around 15 million even after our Civil War and no where near that many in the military.
I believe in everything he said but the reg part it's a joke they don't let people hunt to feed familys bases on there opinions and all the money we pay goes to them not the game .iv payed for a fishing license and they have stocked the lakes here 1 time in 3 years .same with my hunting license you sell a license but tell me I can't use led ammo but that's all you sell
I mean its true that they were over hunted. But it wasn't all white men. A lot of it was the Plains Indians. They hunted them by causing a stampede over a cliff. And contrary to popular belief the Indians were actually very wasteful with their buffalo hunting. But technically they did over hunt them so its not incorrect to say hunters wiped them out. But I meet a lot of people who think it was just the white people that over hunted it. Just trying to make sure you can see both sides of the story.
I wish people would stop trying to equate market hunting with regulated hunting. Thats apples and oranges. Another hot button for me is when people lump poachers (read criminals) in with hunters.
I'm proud of the example set by Teddy Roosevelt. Ignoring the need for conservation is self destructive. Destruction of buffalo is a total disgrace. One reason for commercial hunting of bison was an effort to destroy the major resource of the American Indian.
Yes. Shot them from parked trains just to cut off a single horn usually. When you realize how much the natives relied on the buffalo herds for survival, it's so cruel. I wish more people knew what you said, it wasn't the average hunter/trapper doing this, but the ridiculous trophy hunting shit that still goes on today.
I mean... Europeans brought sickness to the Buffalos predator, native people, the couldn't hunt, the population explodes, then sickness and other factors of overpopulation start to play in and destroys the buffalo populations in general. Wasnt all hunters, but commercial hunting didnt help.
Language is not a hard set of rules; it´s just what people use to communicate. If people in an area call something buffalo for hundreds of years, than I would say buffalo is legitimate, even if science refers to them as bison. There are plenty of objects that are referred to by many things in different regions of the English speaking world that have one more widely accepted name. It doesn´t mean people in that region are wrong for calling it something else.
You like beaches, but you go to them. So true when you think of all the litter and damage we do to the beaches and dunes and sea life when we just want to GTL.
Incredible Steve's talk, as a veterinarian I can assure you that although uncontrolled hunting was decisive in the dramatic decline of buffalo, I believe that a large part, surely most, of buffalo deaths were due to diseases acquired by exposure to European cattle. the replacement rate for buffalo births would be between 8 to 10 million animals per year, which would make it basically impossible that just hunting them, even when 20,000 buffalo were killed per day, would have such a steep decline in less than a century. Very different from other animals such as large predators, or elephants, rhinos, etc., which have such low birth rates that hunting can eradicate them in a very short time.
I dunno… pictures of the mountains of bison skulls piled up show how millions were being slaughtered within a very small period of time, and that was happening in various locations across the continent
@@_permanence Those photos that you comment are of thousands of animals in the course of one or several years that were accumulating. To give you an idea, the largest slaughterhouses today (fully industrialized, with machines that do 90% of the work) are capable of slaughtering a few thousand cows per day (installed capacity, not necessarily in use) on average. of a large slaughterhouse is 900-1500 cows per day). At that time, evidently none of that existed, so in terms of labor to skin 10 million buffaloes a year, we would be talking about hundreds of thousands of workers. I am not trying to say that the hunt was not indiscriminate and that didn't had an impact. But it is mathematically impossible that tens of millions of buffalo were hunted and processed annually. The greatest impact was surely caused by livestock diseases. Brucellosis for example, can cause almost all the buffalo calves in a herd to be aborted during an outbreak, adding other diseases (leptospira, tuberculosis, viral diarrhea among others) it is feasible to eradicate millions of animals in a matter of a few years. For example, in the 50's, a French doctor introduced some rabbits with myxomatosis in his garden to spread the disease among the colony that ate his orchard. Within a matter of a few years, it spread to Spain, a country with an huge population of rabbits and hares, almost the entire population of wild rabbits disappeared in a few years, taking with them lynxes, eagles, and other predators that depended on the rabbit. If it had not been documented, someone could believe that it was the hunters who almost eradicated rabbits, hares, lynxes and eagles in Spain, but it was precisely they who have managed to stabilize the situation and the numbers of all these species are on the rise and out of danger.
@@FedericoPrieto13 interesting insight. Undoubtedly disease and viruses are very powerful forces in nature as we have recently been reminded! Do you know if the diseases were intentionally introduced to try and eradicate the bison?
@@_permanence No, they were unintentional because the settlers moving west with their livestock did not do so with any agenda beyond founding farms and earning a living. In fact, most livestock diseases had not been studied, the causative agents and their transmission mechanism were not known. Domestic livestock, being in contact with these diseases for centuries, developed immunity that allowed them to face these diseases and minimize their impact, but buffalo, which had never been exposed to them and did not have any type of immunity, would be terribly affected. The same thing happened to the contrary, American, Asian or African diseases have hit European cattle hard both when they reached those lands and those that were infected in Europe. In the case of humans, smallpox killed many more Indians than the bullets, and the syphilis that the colonizers and navigators brought back to Europe also claimed its victims.
The part about people looking back a hundred years from now n laughing about how stupid we r currently.... I do that now, u shouldn't need to look back to see how stupid shit is lol. That's actually what God me here to do, to explain how stupid people be n that we. AN do something about how shit sucks. And there's an extremely finite number of Me's Technically only one actually Yer welcome btw Just doing my part
Hunters have helped keep animals from going extinct. Supply and demand. When people are willing to pay to hunt an animal people are very willing to breed the animals to make the money. Also remember there is only one way to know if an animal is truly extinct. You have to be every we’re on earth at the exact same time.
I think this is a good lesson on why private ownership for conservation is important too... even for exotics. We wouldn't have cattle anymore if it weren't for it. Cattle descend from auroch which is extinct too. Breeds of cattle with a similar phenotype to auroch are being used in a backward breeding project for a rewilding Europe project.
Language is not a hard set of rules; it´s just what people use to communicate. If people in an area call something buffalo for hundreds of years, than I would say buffalo is legitimate, even if science refers to them as bison. There are plenty of objects that are referred to by many things in different regions of the English speaking world that have one more widely accepted name. It doesn´t mean people in that region are wrong for calling it something else.
What rubbish,bison were in decline before the commercial hunt began.Over population led to over grazing and disease.Bison were in the east because natives burned forests to create habitat.At no time during the commercial bison hunt did the harvest equal the annual birth rate.
Let us not forget what happened in China and the eradication of the sparrows. As he said, messing with animals that don't have this public support doesn't mean that it doesn't have a critical part of the biome. The disease, insect, predatory birds and water supply problems in China is out of control. China has almost no wildlife and nearly no birds. It's really too bad because 150 years ago there were some awesome animals.
As normal for me I'm commenting before listening to the whole video. The term "Hunter" today is a little different today than maybe back then. I think maybe the title should have been, how market hunters nearly wiped them out and hunters brought them back. Just me.
Hunters safety and conservation needs to be mandatory in all states before buying a hunting license. We’ve got to learn from mistakes. Also elk have be reintroduced here in wv, they’re amazing
Thank God there making a come back i wouldn't want to live in a world without Bison/ Tatonka !! I can't imagine being a plains Indian and watching my whole life being wiped out by intruders!!
@@andrewcundiff8545 Brucellosis stacks up 100,000 skulls in one pile and trainloads of hides in another pile? You sound like someone who says "volcanoes emit more greenhouse gas than industry, research I've done say they're a bigger factor in climate change."
You are right alot of them where not and that is why he called them "opportunist". Comming out of the war and illiterate there is just not many jobs for ya so it was an easy fit. Like he said they did not all see it as evil it was just making a living. However beeing human someone smart saw the problem and we also as humans found a way to stop and rectify the situation. Now with Bison it is not quite as easy to see like other animals we hunt. Hell they are now either having or getting ready to re institute elk hunting in Missouri crazy times.
