Student documentary tracks last remaining wild herd of American bison in Yellowstone
This article was originally published on moreheadcain.org. Photo courtesy of Anna Connors ’24 and Aayas Joshi ’26.
An independent documentary by Anna Connors ’24 and Aayas Joshi ’26 tells the history of the dwindling buffalo population in the Yellowstone, Montana, region and the factors that threaten the species’ survival.
The 13-minute film, The Last Wild Herd: Defending Yellowstone’s Buffalo, features voices from the Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC). The nonprofit has advocated for nearly three decades for the preservation and protection of buffalo.
The American bison was named the country’s national mammal in 2016, yet the “persecution and near-extinction levels of slaughter they’ve faced tell a different story,” Aayas said. An estimated 5,000 buffalo currently live in Yellowstone, down from the millions that once freely roamed the continent, according to the scholar.
“Bison are regularly subjected to hazing operations, brutal quarantine procedures, slaughter, domestication and political pressure by the cattle industry,” he said.
Their survival continues to be threatened by government management policies, Anna added, that “prioritize the desires of the cattle industry over native wildlife, and, in turn, deprioritize the desires of Native American Indian tribes.”
Aayas and Anna had originally set out to focus on northern Rocky Mountain gray wolves, an endangered species. During the early stages of their research, however, the team connected with James Holt, a member of the Nez Perce Tribe and the Buffalo Field Campaign’s executive director.
Learning about the organization and its mission and history inspired them to focus on buffalo, which have historically received less media attention than wolves, Anna said.
“When we arrived and began to spend time at BFC, we realized we’d be doing ourselves a disservice to not at least focus part of our project on buffalo,” said the scholar, who shot, edited and produced the film with Aayas through the 2023 Rich Beckman Documentary Award and the Morehead-Cain Global Perspective summer.
The two spent a month in and around Yellowstone National Park, interviewing local activists, volunteers and leaders of indigenous communities.
The film aims to shed light on a culturally significant species to native tribes and “the sociocultural prejudices that influence our interactions with the natural world,” said Aayas, a photographer and videographer on the Morehead-Cain Scholar Media Team.
“Our hope with the documentary is to inform people about the issue and amplify the amazing work done by the Buffalo Field Campaign,” he said. “We are honored to have crossed paths with all those who have been working tirelessly to defend Yellowstone’s bison, and we hope that our project can help contribute to the cause.”
The project was supported by the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media and the Morehead-Cain Foundation’s Summer Enrichment Program and Lovelace Fund for Discovery.