 Still, Hornaday decided to close the exhibit after just two days, and on Monday, September 8, Benga could be found walking the zoo grounds, often followed by a crowd "howling, jeering and yelling".Benga committed suicide in 1916 when his return trip to the Congo was delayed by World War I.

Hornaday's advocacy is credited with preserving the American bison from extinction.At the end of the nineteenth century, he began to plan, with Theodore Roosevelt's support, a society for the protection of the bison.