REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 



Since the last Annual meeting of the Society, two 

 new Government herds have been estal^lishecL One by 

 the U. S. Biological Survey in Oklahoma and the other 

 by the Bison Society in the Pisgah National Forest and 

 Game Preserve in North Carolina. A full report on the 

 estalilishing of this herd will appear elsewhere. 



The census of 1918 show eight (8) Government- 

 owned herds with a total of eight hundred and ninety- 

 one (891) animals, and in all, throughout the United 

 States, three thousand one hundred and eighteen (3118) 

 Buffalo. In Canada there are four thousand two hun- 

 dred and forty-three (1213), making a total of seven 

 thousand three hundred and sixty-one (7361) pure- 

 blood bison in North America. 



The census as of January 1, 1920, is about com- 

 pleted and will appear in the Annual Report. 



A numl3er of letters were sent abroad during the 

 past vear in view of ascertaining the present condition 

 of the few remaining herds of European bison. Very 

 little information of an authentic nature can ])e had, l)ut 

 it appears that if not completely exterminated, they 

 have l)een reduced to a pitifully small number. The 

 herd owned bv Count Potocki and kept in a very large 

 park, according to the French writer, M. Grandidier, 

 were exterminated l)y the Bolsheviki, for in their policy 

 of extermination, l)ison could not ])e owned by every- 

 bodv, therefore must be owned by nobody, and so the 

 fanious herd was slaughtered, together with all other 

 rare animals found on the estate. 



The largest herd of European Inson, numbering 

 about seven hundred (700), was in the great forest of 

 Bvelovitsa in Lithuania and was carefully preserved 

 by the late Czar, l)ut during the three years of military 

 occupation the forest was practically destroyed by the 

 Germans, but the bison, as far as possible, were officially 

 protected. This olficial protection no doubt prevented 



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