The American Buffalo: A Film by Ken Burns

PBS: Starts Tuesday 24 March at 9.35pm

For untold generations, America’s national mammal sustained the lives of Native people of the Great Plains, whose cultures became spiritually intertwined with the animal.

But by the late 1880s, the buffalo had been driven to the brink of extinction by newcomers to the continent. A population that had once numbered in the tens of millions had been reduced to fewer than 1,000.

In this two-part documentary, celebrated filmmaker Ken Burns recounts the collision of two opposing views of the natural world and its tragic consequences. We also see how a diverse, unlikely collection of Americans started a few private herds in different locations. Their efforts grow into a movement that rescued the buffalo from disappearing forever.