Just an interesting side note, that has no direct bearing really on the discussion, but interesting nonetheless...
In the 1800's there were scientists who made a series of measurements on the American bison. They measured such things as femur length, average weight, height etc. etc.
Currently, the population of bison is larger and more robust than the animals of the 1800's, presumably because the weaker animals were invariably the first killed during the great bison slaughter.
Just a guess, but I'll bet todays animals are smarter, too.
