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Bison bison

(American Buffalo)

Overview

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Bison are hoofed mammals that have a large heavy head with short black horns and high humped shoulders that are covered in long black fur. The remainder of their body is covered with shorter brown fur. However, there are extremely rare occasions when a white buffalo will be born and keep that fur color for the remainder of its life. Normally, a single calf is born in May or June and are yellowish-red in color. Bulls , or males, will commonly stand six feet tall at their shoulders, they are ten to twelve and a half feet in length and exceed over one ton in weight . Cows are much smaller.

There were a vast number of bison living in North America at the time of European discovery, there were an estimated 60 million living in the late 18th Century. With the advance westward of colonists , numbers dwindled and by 1820, there were none left east of the Mississippi River . The age of expansion westward brought the transcontinental railroad and the United States governments desire to hunt and eliminate the animal as a way of killing off the Native American population that stood in their way. All this resulted in there only being six hundred bison living in the United States by 1889. However, with the help of legislation for their protection, there are over 200,000 living today on private ranches, parks and reserves. The largest single herd is 3,600 that roam freely in Yellowstone National Park, but that number is threatened because of severe actions taken by the state government of Montana and a severe winter. Bison are in the bovid family and are not true buffaloes. They have fourteen pairs of ribs as opposed to the thirteen that are found in true buffalo. A young bison can mate as early as three years of age but will not become full grown for another five years. In some cases a bison may live to be thirty to forty years old. It has been discovered that any attempt to train a bison has failed because they have quick tempers and are such a massive size.

Near Threatened

Threat status

Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in Dutch:

Bizon

Common Names in English:

American Bison, American Buffalo, bison, Buffalo

Common Names in Spanish:

Bisonte americano

Description

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Physical Description

Species Bison bison

This large, cow-like hooved mammal has a distinct hump at the shoulder . Its head , neck, shoulders and forelegs are covered in long shaggy hair. The head is short and heavy, with short, black, curved horns. The tail is short and the tip is covered in a tuft of hair.

Habitat

Grasslands and plains .

Ecology: North American bison are primarily grazers and forage primarily in grassland and meadow communities. They had the widest natural range of any North American herbivore, from the arid grasslands of Chihuahua State in northern Mexico, through the grasslands of the Great Plains , to the riparian meadows of interior Alaska. They can persist in arid regions (Mexico and New Mexico) and in areas experiencing deep snow cover (Yellowstone National Park). Grasses and sedges form the mainstay of the annual diet in all regions. However, summer and fall diets may be broader, including flowering plants , woody plant leaves, and lichens, in addition to grasses and sedges, depending on local availability. Bison excavate snow at foraging sites by sweeping it away using side to side motions of their muzzle . The plains bison undertook seasonal migrations when it was abundant prior to European settlement of the continent. It no longer migrates owing to land use change and depopulation. The wood bison was not migratory and remains so. Both subspecies exhibit strong seasonal aggregation during the calving through breeding seasons (May through August).[1].

List of Habitats :

[more info]

Biology

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Diet

Bison are gregarious grazers . An estimated 30 - 40 million bison roamed the vast North American continent at the time of European contact in the 1500s. Bison are less selective than domestic cattle and consume a wide variety of grasses, forbs , and other broad-leafed plants . They are cud-chewers and have a four-chambered stomach. The daily activity of bison is very similar to that of domestic cattle. Peak feeding times are in the early morning and late afternoon, with a midday period of resting, cud chewing, and wallowing.

Taxonomy

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Similar Species

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Members of the genus Bison

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 8 species and subspecies in this genus:

B. bison (American Buffalo) · B. bison americanus (American Bison) · B. bison athabasacae (Wood Bison) · B. bison athabascae (Wood Bison) · B. bison bison (Bison) · B. bison oregonus (Oregon Bison) · B. bonasus (European Bison) · B. bonasus caucasicus (European Wood Bison)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 26, 2007:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Gates, C. & Aune, K. 2008. Bison bison. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 30 January 2012. [back]
Last Revised: 2012-05-02