November 8

On the 8th in 1899, the Bronx Zoo opened its doors to the public, boasting 22 exhibits and 843 animals. In 1905, with fewer than 1,000 American bison alive in the wild, William T. Hornaday, first director of the zoo, who possessed a deep and abiding interest in bison, started to build the Zoo’s herd. Hornaday was instrumental in obtaining national protection for the American bison, a species decimated by hunting in the 19th century. Beginning in 1907, the Bronx Zoo began shipping New York bison to new homes at the Oklahoma Wichita Mountain Preserve. Eventually the Bronx Zoo, under Hornaday’s guidance, would send bison to refuges in Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. The descendants of the Bronx’s bison are easy to pick out in the herd; they’re the ones with the bad attitudes and sneers.