Catalina Island bison herd

[1] Registered as privately owned agricultural livestock in a fenced-restricted area, it has been commonly reported that the bison were imported in 1924 for the silent film version of Zane Grey's Western tale, The Vanishing American.

[3] A September 1938 article in Nation's Business said the herd then numbered about 30 animals and was left behind with Wrigley's permission after a Lasky Western filmed on the island in 1925.

[9] On December 11, 1924 (based on the dateline in several newspaper accounts) 16 bison of 86 culls from the Yellowstone herd (which had numbered 780 on August 1, 1924) had been sent to California[a] and then were headed to Catalina.

[10]Other animals culled that year went to cities, game preserves, forests and private estates, plus a pair to Flo Zeigfield.

[12] A 1949 report on a bison roundup on the island claimed that it was in "1924, I think" that a film company left behind 13 "bulls and stags" in Skull Canyon.

[15] The study found the bison's shaggy coats carry imported plants such as fennel which disrupt endemic species like St. Catherine's lace.

[2] In 2004, the Conservancy partnered with the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, the Tongva (thought to be Catalina's original inhabitants some 7,000 years ago), and the Lakota tribe on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota.

[19] On August 26, 2015, a contract worker from American Conservation Experience was injured by a bison while working near Tower Peak on Catalina Island.