Bison Blues

I noticed this Bison crossing the street and heading towards the blue and white steam rising up from the hydrothermal basin. The reason I have chosen to name this photo "Bison Blues", is not only for the blue steam rising up from the hydrothermal basin at Yellowstone Park, but also because of the difficult history the Bison has had to walk through. 150 years ago there were an est. 40 million Bison alive. But by 1883 hunters had wiped out the population leaving only a few hundred. Conservationist were able to save a few hundred in captivity, and all 500,00 Bison alive today are descendants of those survivors. Now the American Bison are in peril once again as more than 90% of all Bison today are being raised commercially and those herds are almost all crossbred. There is believed to be 400 genetically pure & healthy Bison left, and conservationists are working hard and with good results to turn the tide around for the Bison population.