Bison roundup shows species' prairie recovery

Any other time of year, this herd of 2,600 would have a 23,000-acre swath of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve to roam.

But for one week in November, it's time for the annual roundup in this place where man took a 5,500-year-old species to the brink of extinction and brought it back.

The 21st century cowboys who round the animals up employ pickups and ATVs instead of horses to thin the herd. Some bison will be sold to private ranchers and some trucked to slaughterhouses.

It's the 15th roundup since 300 bison were reintroduced to the tallgrass prairie in the early 1990s. Overseen by The Nature Conservancy, which bought the preserve in 1989, the program here is among several across the country that have rescued the American bison — also commonly called the buffalo — from near-annihilation.