edHelper.com
The 2000's
 Yellowstone Buffalo

Yellowstone Buffalo
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 6 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.5

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    killing, transcontinental, possibility, vaccinate, shaggy, solution, compromise, tested, graze, riddle, extinction, naturally, incentive, zone, government, conflict
     content words:    North America, Great Plains, Yellowstone National Park, Yellowstone Park, National Park, Lakota Sioux, Buffalo Field Campaign, Field Campaign, Native American

Print Yellowstone Buffalo
     Print Yellowstone Buffalo  (font options, pick words for additional puzzles, and more)

Quickly Print - PDF format
     Quickly Print: PDF (2 columns per page)
     Quickly Print: PDF (full page)

Quickly Print - HTML format
     Quickly Print: HTML

Proofreading Activity
     Print a proofreading activity

Feedback on Yellowstone Buffalo
     Leave your feedback on Yellowstone Buffalo  (use this link if you found an error in the story)

Yellowstone Buffalo
By Sharon Fabian 		  
1     Can you solve this riddle? This is the largest land mammal in North America. It can weigh two thousand pounds or more. It can run fast and plow through the snow. It has a big shaggy head.
 
2     If you said the American buffalo, or bison, you are correct.
 
3     These buffalo once roamed the Great Plains in vast herds. Then in the 1800s, they nearly became extinct when the new transcontinental railroad brought settlers and hunters onto the plains. During those years, millions of buffalo were killed.
 
4     By 1900, only a few hundred buffalo remained. Since then, they have been brought back from near extinction. Now there are many buffalo raised on ranches, but the only place where the wild, free-roaming buffalo still live is in Yellowstone National Park.
 
5     The wild buffalo live in the park each year starting in the spring when the winter's snow melts. In winter when nearly everything in the park is frozen, they migrate to lower elevations looking for food.
 
6     That is where the problem began. The lower elevations preferred by the buffalo in the winter months are not part of Yellowstone Park. In these lower elevations, the buffalo and the ranchers' cattle came into conflict.
 
7     Actually, the buffalo and the cattle didn't seem to mind too much, but some of the ranchers and other humans did mind. They feared a disease called brucellosis that is carried by buffalo. Cattle ranchers had worked hard to rid their herds of the disease. There had been no known cases of brucellosis transmitted from buffalo to cattle, but still the possibility was there.
 
8     The state of Wyoming continued to allow buffalo to migrate into their state and had no problems.
 
9     The state of Montana didn't want to take any chances. To make sure that the disease was not spread into their herds from infected buffalo, it decided that the buffalo should stay in Yellowstone National Park. Montana passed a law that said buffalo were not allowed to roam out of the park and into their state.

Paragraphs 10 to 18:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable
Copyright © 2009 edHelper