American Serengeti: The Last Big Animals of the Great Plains

Reaching back to the earliest animal-human interactions on the grasslands thousands of years ago and running forward to present concerns, Flores synthesizes both the science and history behind the story of the last big mammals of North America's prairies. The epic fauna of today's Serengeti is the best parallel Flores may draw upon to articulate a North American interior that hosted perhaps as many as thirty million bison in peak numbers, nearly ten thousand grizzly bears, and pronghorn antelope numbering around fifteen million, to name only a few species. Flores calls on his readers to learn to love the Plains and suggests that enforcement of the Endangered Species Act and efforts to expand protected grassland ecosystems might help restore part of the region's former richness.