In the summer of 2003, word got out that fishermen in the Solomon Islands, a tropical chain of islands in the Pacific, had trapped some 200 bottlenose dolphins in a shallow inlet. After securing the animals’ captivity, they began selling them to the highest bidders.

Who were the buyers interested in such cruelly captured creatures? Marine parks that prize the intelligent animals for their ability to perform acrobatic tricks, and hotels and amusement centers that charge guests a hefty fee to “swim with the dolphins.” Like the dolphins captured in Bluefields, Nicaragua in NATURE’s The Dolphin Defender, these animals were destined for hotels. Although the Bluefields dolphins were eventually rescued and released, several dozen of the Solomon dolphins were not as lucky and were flown to tourist hotels in Mexico. The imports drew fierce protests from conservationists and condemnation from Mexican newspaper editors, who said the trade violated international conservation laws. Eventually, the government responded that it would more carefully scrutinize future dolphin imports.

Even today, despite government efforts, “the demand for live dolphins is just exploding,” says Hardy Jones, the filmmaker and dolphin advocate behind The Dolphin Defender. “The trade is being encouraged by people willing to pay $150 each to jump in the water and swim with a captive dolphin for an hour.” For decades, Jones has been working to expose and stop the trade in dolphins which he says contributes to the decline of some species. In Japan, for instance, where dolphin meat is considered a delicacy, the trade is helping bring back another troubling practice: the annual dolphin hunt, which Japanese fishermen largely abandoned in the 1970s after international protests.

Traditionally, the hunts took place in several seaside villages. Fishermen would corral the dolphins into nets or weirs, then kill and butcher them. The meat brings a good price on the Japanese market, and was at one time an important source of income for some families. (Jones says dolphin meat today is contaminated with mercury and other pollutants, and not very safe to eat.)

In 1980, Jones filmed one of the hunts and gave the bloody, dramatic footage to television networks. Many viewers were shocked, and the ensuing protests persuaded many fishermen to abandon the practice. One village eventually established a dolphin-watching industry to help replace lost income.

Scientists rehabilitate a Bluefields dolphin before releasing it back into the wild.

But Jones says the growing dolphin trade, which some analysts estimate involves up to 1,000 animals a year, is encouraging Japanese villagers to bring back the hunt. That’s because they now have two kinds of customers: those interested in buying the meat, and those willing to pay $20,000 or more for a single live dolphin.

“Japan is becoming a major source of dolphins along with China and some other nations,” Jones says. Demand is also coming from Asia, where an economic boom is promoting the growth of tourism. In the United States, dolphin captures are strictly regulated; there have been no legal captures since 1993. Some marine parks have learned to breed dolphins while others display injured animals that are being rehabilitated or import animals from European parks.

In the Solomon Islands, the controversy over the 2003 captures has died down. But some conservationists say an unstable political situation has allowed the trade to continue on a smaller scale.

The protests have had an impact elsewhere. Last year, a dolphin hunter obtained a permit from the government of the Caribbean islands of Antigua and Barbuda to capture a dozen dolphins. After the public found out about the permits, however, protesters convinced officials to change their minds.

Charlie Russell’s and Maureen Enns’s efforts to reintroduce three orphaned grizzly bears to Kamchatka is one example of the growing international efforts to restore wildlife to their rightful place in the world. But sometimes restorationists want to put predators like grizzlies back into places they haven’t been seen in centuries, sparking opposition from those who say dangerous animals just can’t coexist with people in some places anymore.

Controversy, for instance, surrounds a U.S. government proposal to reintroduce grizzly bears into the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness areas of Idaho and western Montana. The preserves hold the largest contiguous area of suitable grizzly-free habitat remaining in the lower 48 states. More than half of those who opposed the reintroduction said in a recent poll that they fear that the bears will threaten hikers and nearby residents. But the National Wildlife Federation, which supports reintroduction, says bear attack statistics suggest such fears are unfounded. Since 1900, they note, the chance that a park visitor might be harmed by a bear is less than 1 in 2 million.

“It is important to note that encounters with the bears are infrequent because grizzlies do not naturally behave aggressively toward humans,” a group spokesman says. “Grizzlies are solitary creatures and tend not to wander beyond their home range, much less seek out interaction with people. [They] do not attack people unless surprised, protecting their food or young, or provoked by aggressive human behavior.”

“No grizzly is going to come looking for you,” adds Bud Moore, a retired forester who sides with the federation and has lived in bear country his entire life. “They don’t want to mix with people.” Moore stresses that people must learn to be respectful of bears, rather than fear them. Those who enjoy outdoor recreational activities like camping, hiking, and hunting can take some simple precautions to prevent chance encounters with grizzlies, according to the wildlife federation. For instance:

• Grizzlies are most likely to attack if they are surprised. Hikers that make noise on the trail or converse normally within a group will alert a bear to their presence long before they get close enough to frighten it.
• Wilderness users should be alert for any sign of bear activity, such as fresh tracks, droppings, or a carcass. If you do come across such a sign, it is wise to turn back or take an alternate route so as to avoid a confrontation.
• Grizzly females are very protective of their young. While they may be cute, travelers should recognize grizzly cubs as a sign of danger and avoid them at all times.
• Most importantly, be sure to store food and garbage properly when in grizzly country. Place all foodstuffs in commercially available bear-proof containers or suspend it out of reach of bears. Campers should also cook away from their campsite and sleep in different clothes than those they cooked in, as grizzlies have an acute sense of smell.

The importance of keeping grizzlies out of human food and garbage cannot be overemphasized, the National Wildlife Federation says. Bears that become habituated present a danger because they lose their shyness. Grizzlies that end up wandering around towns are bound to get into trouble, bringing tragedy to both people and themselves. But by using common sense, wilderness lovers can help make the outdoors a safer place for both bears and humans.

Buffalo were the lords of the prairie. To European settlers traveling across America’s Great Plains in the early 1800s, the prairie wind was a constant companion: a gentle whisper echoing across the vast sea of grass that carpeted the center of the North American continent. Sometimes, however, the rumbling of thunder could be heard in the distance, though no storm clouds could be seen. Then the ground would begin to tremble, and suddenly the astonished newcomers would be surrounded by a thundering herd of hulking animals that stretched further than the eye could see. The majestic welcoming committee made it clear that the settlers had, at last, arrived in the buffalo nation — a land where tens of million of American Bison held sway.

The NATURE program American Buffalo: Spirit of a Nation tells the sad story of how the buffalo nation was destroyed nearly a century ago by greed and uncontrolled hunting — and how a few visionaries are working today to rebuild the once-great bison herds. It offers a remarkable portrait of America’s last significant wild bison herd, made up of a few thousand animals living within Montana’s Yellowstone National Park. And it highlights the efforts of Native American leaders dedicated to bringing back the animal that once gave life to their tribes. “Buffalo have to be there for our culture to exist,” says Fred DuBray, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe who appears in American Buffalo. “As we bring our herds back to health, we will also bring our people back to health.”

Like people, the buffalo — known to scientists as Bison bison — came to North America long ago from Asia, crossing a land bridge that once connected Siberia to Alaska. The early bison were enormous lumbering animals, weighing up to 5,000 pounds and sporting horns that spanned more than six feet across.

Bison can weigh up to a ton.

Bison can weigh up to a ton. Over time, however, the North American stock evolved into trimmer beasts. Still, modern bison can weigh up to 2,000 pounds; they can be more than a dozen feet long and stand up to six feet tall at their massive shoulder hump, which serves as a storehouse for energy-rich fat.

By the time America’s earliest peoples had established villages about 20,000 years ago, the bison dominated the rolling grasslands and forested hillsides that stretched west from the Mississippi River west to the Rocky Mountains. Researchers estimate that prairie bison alone numbered between 30 million and 200 million, while a woodland variant existed in smaller numbers. Though killing such large, fast animals was a formidable task — bison can run for long periods at up to 35 miles per hour — ancient tribes soon perfected several effective techniques. Some would surround small herds with a human chain, giving archers a better shot at the tightly packed animals. Others learned to stampede bison over cliffs. Such “buffalo jumps” provided tribes with critical supplies of nutritious meat and warm hides that allowed them to survive the region’s harsh winters. But flesh and skin weren’t the only prizes: tribes learned to use virtually every part of the animal, from horns to tail hairs.

“The Indian was frugal in the midst of plenty,” says Luther Standing Bear, a member of the Lakota tribe. “When the buffalo roamed the plains in multitudes, he slaughtered only what he could eat and these he used to the hair and bones.” Indeed, for thousands of years the huge bison herds were able to accommodate the loss of the relatively few animals taken by Native Americans. In the 1500s, however, things began to change. First, Spanish explorers introduced horses to the region. By the 1800s, Native Americans had learned to use the speedy steeds to chase bison, dramatically expanding their hunting range and effectiveness. Next, guns made their way into the hands of buffalo hunters, making them increasingly deadly hunters. But it was that arrival of vast waves of white settlers in the 1800s — and their conflict with the Native American residents of the prairies — that spelled the end for the buffalo. Among the earliest waves of settlers were trappers and traders, people who made their living selling meat and hides. By the 1870s, they were shipping hundreds of thousands of buffalo hides eastward each year: more than 1.5 million were packed aboard trains and wagons in the winter of 1872-73 alone.

The commercial killers, however, weren’t the only ones shooting bison. Train companies offered tourists the chance to shoot buffalo from the windows of their coaches, pausing only when they ran out of ammunition or the gun’s barrel became too hot. There were even buffalo killing contests. In one, a Kansan set a record by killing 120 bison in just 40 minutes. “Buffalo” Bill Cody, hired to slaughter the animals, killed more than 4,000 buffalo in just two years.

Some U.S. government officials even promoted the destruction of the bison herds as a way to defeat their Native American enemies, who were resisting the takeover of their lands by white settlers. One Congressman, James Throckmorton of Texas, believed that “it would be a great step forward in the civilization of the Indians and the preservation of peace on the border if there was not a buffalo in existence.” Soon, military commanders were ordering their troops to kill buffalo — not for food, but to deny Native Americans their own source of food. One general believed that buffalo hunters “did more to defeat the Indian nations in a few years than soldiers did in 50.” By 1880, the slaughter was almost over. Where millions of buffalo once roamed, only a few thousand animals remained. Soon, their numbers dwindled, with the largest wild herd — just a few hundred animals — sheltered in the isolated valleys of the newly created Yellowstone National Park. As American Buffalo shows, it is from this tattered remnant that people are today trying to rebuild the once mighty buffalo nation.

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Online content for American Buffalo: Spirit of a Nation was originally posted November 1998.