Six American bison are grazing on native tallgrass prairie in Kane County, Illinois, for the first time in more than 200 years — and a quiet but growing national movement to bring back North America’s most iconic animal is gaining ground well beyond the Great Plains.
The animals, three males and three females, are now on public display at the Burlington Prairie Forest Preserve in Sycamore, about 50 miles northwest of downtown Chicago. The herd arrived in January from the Nachusa Grasslands conservation site in western Illinois, according to a Fox 32 Chicago report by Dane Placko. The preserve opened to public visitors at sunrise Friday.
From 60 Million to Fewer Than 1,000
The Kane County reintroduction is a small but significant chapter in one of the most dramatic population collapses — and tentative recoveries — in American conservation history.
Around 1800, an estimated 30 to 60 million bison roamed the Great Plains in herds stretching up to 50 miles across, according to the Fox 32 Chicago broadcast. By the late 1800s, commercial hunting driven by westward expansion had reduced the population to fewer than 1,000 animals. Historians note that the destruction of bison herds also functioned as a deliberate strategy to destabilize Plains tribes, whose cultures and food systems were built around the animal.
That near-extinction triggered some of the earliest organized conservation efforts in American history. The American Bison Society, co-founded by President Theodore Roosevelt and zoologist William Hornaday, helped relocate small protected herds into national parks starting in the early 1900s. In 2016, Congress designated the American bison the official national mammal of the United States under the National Bison Legacy Act.
Where the Recovery Stands Now
North America’s bison population has rebounded to an estimated 500,000 animals — but the full picture is more complicated. The vast majority are raised on commercial ranches; wildlife biologists estimate that only around 20,000 to 30,000 bison live in conservation or tribally managed herds focused on ecological and cultural goals.
Indigenous-led restoration has been a critical piece of that recovery. The InterTribal Buffalo Council, established in 1990, helps manage bison herds on dozens of tribal lands across the country, reconnecting Native communities with an animal central to their cultures for thousands of years.
That cultural dimension is central to the Kane County project. The six bison are owned by the American Indian Center of Chicago, and their January arrival was marked by a traditional ceremony attended by dozens of Native Americans from multiple tribes, according to Fox 32 Chicago.
“The story of the American buffalo is the same as the Native Americans,” a project official said in the broadcast. “When we first started designing this project, it was a straight ecological restoration — but there was a bigger story that I feel we were responsible to tell.”
Why This Site Is Different
The Burlington Prairie Forest Preserve is not a zoo enclosure. The herd roams 38 acres of restored tallgrass prairie containing 150 species of native plants, including a section of virgin prairie that has never been broken by a plow, according to Fox 32 Chicago. Tallgrass prairie once covered much of the Midwest and is now one of the most endangered ecosystems in North America.
By the end of summer, an additional 62 acres will be fenced and added to the preserve. Organizers hope the herd will eventually grow to roughly three dozen animals as the bison breed naturally on-site — the preserve intends to be a permanent home, not a rotating exhibit.
“They’re going to live out their full life cycle,” a preserve official said in the Fox 32 Chicago broadcast.
How to Visit
Burlington Prairie Forest Preserve is located in Sycamore, Illinois, approximately 50 miles northwest of downtown Chicago, and is open to the public at sunrise daily. It is the only location in Kane County where bison can be seen on native tallgrass prairie; the Lourdes Park Zoo in Elgin and Fermilab also have bison, but neither replicates the open-prairie habitat.
Organizers say the project has already drawn more than one million social media interactions. For most Midwestern residents, the Kane County herd offers something that previously required a trip to Yellowstone or the Badlands: North America’s largest land animal in the landscape it shaped for millennia.
SOURCES & LINKS
- Fox 32 Chicago, Dane Placko, broadcast date not confirmed in transcript — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1yZy9WNEdc
