This is the first part in a series of mechanical animals. These works combine my fascination with 19th-century technology and my love of natural history. Each mechanical animal has a story. This time: the bison.

Drawn

The arrival of the steam train almost led to the extinction of the American bison population. Railroad tracks ran right through the bison's migration routes, giving hunters easy access to the herds and allowing them to transport bison products to the east. Trains slowed down so that the bison could be easily shot from the moving trains. Of the millions of wild American bison, only hundreds remained after a few decades.

To illustrate this, I incorporated 19th-century patent drawings of steam trains into the bison. The steam comes out of its snout like clouds of breath.

Read

I read about the fate of the bison in The Naturalist, a biography about President Theodore Roosevelt's interests in natural history.

At the age of 8, Theodore started his own 'Roosevelt Museum of Natural History', where he labeled each specimen and recorded it in his notes. At the age of 18, he began studying natural history at Harvard, and his student room was soon filled with stuffed birds and his favorite books and prints, such as Audubon's Birds of America. Roosevelt traveled to the Wild West as an avid hunter to shoot bison, but at the same time, he became increasingly aware that natural resources were not inexhaustible.

His career focus shifted to politics, but his love of nature (and hunting) remained. As president, he was committed to creating and expanding national parks such as Yosemite. In 1905, he founded the American Bison Society with the aim of protecting the bison.

The most exciting part of Theodore Roosevelt's adventurous life was yet to come. But you can read about that next week!

Listened to

Cameron Winter fits into the category of unique voices such as Rufus Wainwright and Antony & the Johnsons. Love Take Miles has been played here many times thanks to a tip from Strook reader Rens, and now Nausicaä is also on repeat.