American Serengeti: The Last Big Animals of The Great Plains
Book by Dan Flores
University Press of Kansas. 2016. 213p. 26 black-and-white photographs, maps, and petroglyphs. Paperbound. $32.50.
Flores is Professor Emeritus at the University of Montana. American Serengeti, although somewhat dated, is his paean to the vast Great Plains, the immense flat lands that extend, or used to, from Texas north into the Canadian prairie provinces.
Aside from his engaging general commentary, the book’s chapters include those on pronghorns, coyotes, horses, grizzly bears, bison, and wolves. There is much concern about so-called wild horses and the alleged damage they do to native vegetation. Flores points out that horses evolved in the prairies and were eventually reintroduced by the early Spanish settlers. He sees bison as analogous to Africa’s wildebeests, pronghorns to antelopes and gazelles, wild horses to zebras, wolves to wild dogs, grizzly bears to lions, and coyotes as jackals.
This fine book focuses on the current large mammals of the Plains, but Flores makes tantalizing reference to the many prehistoric species that were abundant here, such as dire wolves, scimitar cats, saber-toothed cats, short-faced bears, steppe lions, zebras, camels, megatherium, jaguars, various elephants, long-horned bison, hyena, and 2 species of “false” cheetahs. Originally grizzly bears were very widespread on the Plains.
It would have added much interest to American Serengeti if some or all of these extinct mammals had been illustrated. Clearly they and the surviving big mammals would have rivaled any place in Africa for their spectacular numbers and movements in this primordial vast sea of grasses and flatlands.
Especially of interest is the story of the coyote, small North American wolves in Flores’ words. In spite of massive, widespread persecution they have prospered and are now found in eastern states and provinces in good numbers.
Another non-mammalian phenomena of interest are the large number of bird species that in their elliptical migrations populate the Great Plains in the spring, having wintered in Patagonia, and, for the most part, migrated south in the East: American Golden-Plover, White-rumped Sandpiper, Hudsonian Godwit, Pectoral Sandpiper, Upland Sandpiper, Baird’s Sandpiper, Buff-breasted Sandpiper et al. These are outside of the scope of Flores’ book. I can’t help but think that there are still some Eskimo Curlew out there somewhere.
Flores does an excellent job of reviewing the historical literature of the Great Plains. He sees that the best chance of a partial re-wilding of the Great Plains, the American Prairie Preserve, is in northeastern Montana, where there are already large preserved areas.
Otherwise there is just a very small percentage of the original Plains remaining, especially areas where Bison have become established or re-established. A thoughtful look at what was once one of the great ecosystems of the world. A glossary and a few more maps would have enhanced an already fine book. There are extensive reference lists for each chapter.
- Henry T. Armistead.