30,000 is roughly 1/3 of 60,000,000.
VERY roughly. Lol
this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2026
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Logarithmically scaled image. I'll leave the determination of the base of the Log as an exercise for the viewer.
I would show my proof, but I don't have enough space in this margin
I'm here for this comment all day.
That's what I thought, so I investigated.
The base of the log can be accounted for by a constant scale factor, because, for example, if n is the number of bison,
log10(n)
= log10(e^ln(n))
= ln(n) log10(e)
and log10(e) is a constant.
This change of base is a linear scale on the logs.
Hence we can just take log 10 of the numbers of bison, and scale the answer by a constant factor which is log10(correct base), getting
7.778, 2.477 and 4.477
Scale that by about 2 = log10(100) to match the 5 bison in the middle pictogram, and there should be
16, 5, 9 bison on a logarithmic scale.
The diagram is also wrong if it's logarithmic.
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Yeah, we need 799613 more bison images to justify the graphic.
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Settlers killed buffalo to force indigenous people into the reservation system. It was a big part of the genocide here, worth looking into if you get the chance.
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Each buffalo in the first picture represents 242,914 buffalo. Which means the last picture would be about 1/10th of a bison, and the middle one would be just the tip of a horn.
Each buffalo in the second picture represents 75 bison. By that metric, the first picture almost comes close to representing the third number. But the third picture just doesn't fit here, and the first number is so huge you'd need at least 2000 times picture one to represent it.
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The decision to stop was required, but a ton of work was done to help the population rebound. What kind of misguided message is this trying to send?
It's trying to tell people who think it's too much work to bother that it's not. I do it all the time, like when I have to wash the dishes and I tell myself "I'll just wash one dish" because I know if I do that I'll be a lot more motivated to continue, but if I keep looking at the whole problem before I start, I'll be too overwhelmed to do anything at all.
That's about how I read it. Sometimes you don't have a solution to fix a problem, but ceasing to make it worse is a valuable course of action in itself. The bison aren't back the way they were, but they're not extinct either.
Sure, the bison population is 0.05% of what it once was. And now that we're not actively attempting to extinct them, everything is hunky dory and no more work is needed.
I don't know how else to interpret this. It sounds like the Bison Society would rather be a society dedicated to literal anything else. The Kick the Can Down the Road Society, perhaps.
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Each of the bison shapes in the 60mil example are actually clusters of bison so small you can't see them with the naked eye.
Jokes on you, I wear glasses and still can't see them
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So I'm not bothered by the inconsistent scale... but why is there a dinosaur peeking through the bottom of the 1889 column?!
They were closing in on extinction?
So thats why charles in rdr2 was so mad about some foreigners killing bisons. Never knew they were endangered (also im not an american)
They weren't naturally, the US state nearly exterminated the species as a tool of genocide against multiple Native American nations.
"They were god damn monsters" (said in arthur morgan's voice)
I'm not American either, but have heard of the near bison extinction. They made literal mountains of nothing but bison skulls.
They skinned them and left their meat and bones to rot all over the prairie.
It's hard to imagine it if you haven't seen the pictures. Even then, it's impossible.
It's crazy to think about. Especially because it's such a cool and unique animal. I'm just happy that bison still exist. I hope their population keeps growing even though they will never be as many as they were.
I think it gets the point across even if it's off by orders of magnitude.
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Wait. I need to know more about the Aperture Science dinosaur in 1889.
I like the optimistic message but the graph scale is throwing me
TIL There are 30,000 free roaming bison but there are 500,000 total including privately owned and commercial herds.
Yep. They are also far better for the land they graze on than cattle, as they evolved here, and so they generally eat only what they should and don't overgraze. The meat is also far leaner and healthier than beef. We really should stop raising cattle and raise bison. The biggest issue is even "domesticated" bison are far more wild and dangerous to raise than the cattle we have bred to be docile. So risk averse ranchers are not interested.
Yeah, American bison don’t take well to husbandry, simply because they’re aggressive. They’re territorial and have bad eyesight, so their first inclination when they see a human-sized blob is usually to attack.
But yes, if you’re going to eat red meat, bison is much better than beef. It’s so lean that natives could dry it and pound it into powder for trail snacking. You can’t do that with modern beef, because it has too much fat. Even beef jerky tends to be pretty greasy.
Log scale?
graph designer "i don't like math" scale
I don't think this is to scale.
I don't know the history of bison population. From the image, I assume there used to be a ton of bison. But then a science experiment involving velociraptors went awry, and only a small group of bison were left alive. Then those bison made an uprising against the velociraptor-experiments and invaded their area, allowing their population to grow again.
How far off am I?
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300 is a hell of a bottleneck
Apparently there is a certain amount of inbreeding with cattle, but several large herds without any interbreeding with cattle are closely managed to prevent inbreeding.
Also, like, it wasn’t just a “decision to stop” it was the end of a coincidence of factors. The mid century climatic conditions that led to several years of poor grass growth, with the combined hunting efforts of European American settlers on rail roads supported by the army’s policies against the Great Plains Indians, south eastern Indians displaced in to the great planes, and Great Plains Indians intensifying hunting via sophisticated methods they’d developed using horseback and fire arms, all driven by a demand for buffalo hides for use in industrial machinery. The end of the bad climatic conditions and the collapse of the hide trade due to development of other industrial materials is what stoped the over hunting.
With the pressures of hunting decreased and a historic climatic event over, the population was able to rebound somewhat, but, due to the encroachment of farms and ranching never really recover. Also the genetic bottleneck of the population probably hasn’t helped things but that’s not super well studied.
Not perfect recovery, but still a powerful reminder that “too late” isn’t always true. Stopping the damage is step one.
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