KEARNEY, Mo. (AP) 鈥� The national mammal of the United States is getting in on celebration.
Three bison statues cast in bronze have taken up a permanent display outside the Smithsonian鈥檚 National Museum of Natural History in Washington. The pieces 鈥� which are larger than real-life bison 鈥� made their public debut in the nation’s capital on Friday.
The bison as the nation’s mammal under a law signed by former President Obama in 2016. Millions of bison once roamed the Great Plains but were nearly driven to extinction in the 1800s.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a wonderful story of conservation working, it鈥檚 a story of people seeing a need and getting behind that to conserve an animal that is specific to North America,鈥� said Gary Staab, a paleoartist who made the statues.
Staab designed and sculpted the statues in Kearney, Missouri, where he works full-time to create sculptures of animals and historical artifacts for museums around the world. For the bison, Staab sculpted the full-size statues in foam and clay before they were cast in bronze and assembled at a foundry in Colorado. The three statues depict a bull, a cow and a calf.
He said it took about four months to complete the sculptures 鈥� a time frame he called 鈥渓ighting fast鈥� given the size of the pieces.
鈥淭hey really represent a really unbelievably beautiful and unique thing about North America,鈥� Staab said.
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