23 BISON WENT TO MEXICO. NOW THERE ARE ABOUT 500.
Twenty-three became about 500. Now the herd is helping start other herds.
23 BISON WENT TO MEXICO.
In 2009, 23 genetically pure American bison from Wind Cave National Park were brought to Rancho El Uno in Chihuahua’s Janos Biosphere Reserve. The Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature now estimates the conservation herd at approximately 500 animals. In the second half of 2025, 44 bison from Janos were relocated to El Santuario in Coahuila to help establish new conservation herds elsewhere in northern Mexico.
WHAT HAPPENED
The Rancho El Uno conservation program started in 2009 with 23 American bison brought south from Wind Cave National Park. Seventeen years of patient management later, FMCN says the population at the Chihuahua reserve is estimated at about 500.\n\nThe herd is now large enough to support the next chapter without pretending conservation is finished. During the second half of 2025, 44 animals were moved from Janos to El Santuario in Coahuila to help establish additional conservation herds. The source documents population growth within the program; it does not establish that every one of the approximately 500 animals descends only from the original 23, and it does not support sweeping ecosystem claims.
WHY THIS IS HOPESLOP
Patient, unflashy conservation compounds. Twenty-three animals became a program large enough to help start other herds — the kind of progress that looks quiet for years and obvious only in hindsight.
ORIGINAL SOURCEMexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature (FMCN)Read the original report