A controversial agreement between the state of Montana and Ted Turner, involving the transfer of nearly 100 buffalo from Yellowstone National Park to the media mogul's Montana ranch for an experimental breeding program, was a featured story in the New York Times recently. Turner, the founder of CNN, also has a national chain of restaurants that serve buffalo.
His plan has brought attention to the future of bison, a still-threatened symbol of the American West, and hopes for returning large numbers of the animals to the wild. But it also highlights rising consumer demand for what many Americans once considered an exotic meat.
Now a Protected Species
After being hunted almost to extinction, buffalo became a protected species in the 1890s. There are now about a half-million bison in North America today — with nearly all of them on private ranches.
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