"Bison. Horses. Coyotes. Wolves. Grizzly Bears. Pronghorns. A la John McPhee and Edward Hoagland, noted Western and environmental historian Flores dazzles with his vivid, informed, and richly detailed essays on six iconic animals of the American Great Plains. Diving into their genetic past as far back as the Pleistocene epoch and on up to restoration efforts in recent times, Flores is especially evocative and illuminating about the lives of these animals (and their interactions with humans) in the several centuries running from the dawn of the Age of Exploration through the end of the Indian Wars"--, In a work that is at once a lyrical evocation of the lost splendor and a detailed natural history of the charismatic species of the historic Great Plains, a veteran naturalist and outdoorsman draws a vivid portrait of each of the Great Plains animals in their glorynd tells the harrowing story of what happened to them at the hands of market hunters and ranchers and ultimately a federal killing program in the 19th and 20th centuries. (Natural History)