American buffalo facts for kids
Quick facts for kids American bison |
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| American bison | |
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| Bison bison (Linnaeus, 1758)
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The American bison (American buffalo or just buffalo) is a bovine mammal. "Buffalo" is something of a mistake as it is only distantly related to the water buffalo and the African buffalo.
Bison are a keystone species. Their staple foods are grasses and sedges. They once roamed the North American continent in great herds, and their grazing helped shape the ecology of the Great Plains. The bison has a large head with relatively small, curving horns. Its dark brown coat is long and shaggy on the forequarters, including the front legs, neck, and shoulders, while the rest of the body has shorter, finer hair.
American bison live in river valleys, on prairies, and on plains. Typical habitat is open or semi-open grassland, as well as sagebrush, semi-arid lands, and scrublands. Bison will also graze in hilly or mountainous areas where the slopes are not steep.
Bison do not typically live in high altitudes, bison in the Yellowstone Park are often found at elevations above 8,000 feet. The Henry Mountains bison herd live on the plains around the Henry Mountains, Utah, and in the mountain valleys as high as 10,000 feet.
Although bison once roamed across North America, they are now ecologically extinct over most of the range in which they used to live. They live on in a few national parks and other small wildlife areas.
Spanning back many centuries, Native American tribes have had cultural and spiritual connections to the American bison, and it is the national mammal of the United States.
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Description
A bison has a shaggy, long, dark-brown winter coat and a lighter-weight, lighter-brown summer coat. Bison can reach up to 6 feet 6 inches (2 m) tall, 10 feet (3 m) long, and weigh 900 to 2,200 pounds (410 to 1,000 kg). As typical in ungulates, the male bison is slightly larger than the female. The biggest specimens on record have weighed as much as 2,500 pounds (1,100 kg). The heads and forequarters are massive, and both sexes have short, curved horns, which they use in fighting for status within the herd and for defense.
Bison are herbivores, grazing on the grasses and sedges of the North American prairies. They eat in the morning and evening, and rest during the day. Bison mate in August and September; gestation is 285 days. A single reddish-brown calf, born the following spring, nurses for a year. Bison are mature at three years of age, and have a life expectancy of approximately 15 years in the wild and up to 25 years in captivity.
For the first three months of life, juveniles are lighter in color than mature bison. One very rare condition is the white buffalo, in which the calf turns entirely white. White bison are considered sacred by many Native Americans.
Differences from European bison
Although they are similar, the American and European bison have physical and behavioral differences. The American species has 15 ribs, while the European bison has 14. The American bison has four lumbar vertebrae, while the European has five. Adult American bison have shorter legs than European bison.
American bison tend to graze more, and browse less than their European cousins because their necks are set differently. The American bison's body is hairier, though its tail has less hair than the European bison's tail.
The horns of the European bison point forward through the plane of its face, making it better at fighting by interlocking horns, unlike the American bison, which favors charging. American bison are more easily tamed than their European cousins and breed more readily with domestic cattle.
Range and population
Bison are found in both publicly and privately held herds. Custer State Park in South Dakota is home to 1,500 bison, one of the largest publicly held herds in the world.There are approximately 500,000 bison in captive commercial populations (mostly plains bison) on about 4,000 privately owned ranches.
Bison are now raised for meat and hides. Bison meat is lower in fat and cholesterol than beef, a fact which has led to the development of beefalo, a fertile cross-breed of bison and domestic cattle.
Wildlife officials believe that free roaming and genetically pure herds on public lands in North America can be found only in Yellowstone National Park, Henry Mountains in Utah, Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, and in Elk Island National Park and Wood Buffalo National Park in Alberta, Canada.
It is estimated that there are as few as 12,000 to 15,000 pure bison in the world. The rest have genes from domestic cattle.
Behavior and ecology
Bison are mostly grazers, with both male and female herds migrating (moving) with the seasons and annual grasses. Bison can eat most of the grass in an area in a short time, so they have to keep migrating to feed more of the entire herd.
Male and female herds do not mingle until the breeding season. Female bison live with other females and their offspring in maternal herds. Male bison do not help raise the young. Male offspring leave these maternal herds when they are about three years old and either live alone or join other males in bachelor herds.
A bison wallow is a shallow depression in the soil, which is used either wet or dry. Bison roll in these depressions, covering themselves with dust or mud. Scientists think that bisons wallow to groom (clean) themselves or to play.
Predation
In some areas, wolves are a major predator of bison. Wolf predation typically peaks in late spring and early summer. They usually concentrate on herds with calves. Bison normally ignore wolves not displaying hunting behavior.
Bison display five apparent defense strategies in protecting calves from wolves. These include running to a cow, running to a herd, running to the nearest bull, running in the front or center of a stampeding herd, and entering water bodies such as lakes or rivers.
The Grizzly Bear can also pose a threat to calves and sometimes adult bison.
Hunting and legal status
American Bison were hunted for centuries by the Plains Indians, initially through driving the bison on foot into corrals or over cliffs. After the arrival of Europeans, the Plains Indians were able to hunt the bison by horse.
As European-descended populations began to press west from the eastern portions of the United States in the 19th century, the bison population was hunted heavily. Americans hunted the buffalo for skins, leaving the meat to rot, sometimes to keep food from the Plains Indians.
Native Americans also contributed to the collapse of the bison, with the Comanche alone killing 280,000 bison a year by the 1830s. Unlike the Europeans, however, Native Americans used all of the buffalo. A long and severe drought harmed the bison population as well.
At the end of the 19th century, conservationists noticed that there were much fewer bison in the U.S. Even though the U.S. government did not help, they began to take measures to preserve the population that was left. Conservationists such as James "Scotty" Philip acquired buffalo and bred them on private land in hopes of reintroducing the species.
Canada, the United States, and Mexico list bison nationally as both wildlife and domestic livestock. Legal status varies among states.
Bison trails
Many of the first paths across America were made by bison. The routes, hammered by countless hoofs, were followed by Indians as hunting and warriors' paths. Explorers and pioneers used them as well.
Many bison trails ran north and south, but several key east-west trails were used later as railways. Some of these include the Cumberland Gap, from the Potomac River through the Allegheny divide to the Ohio River headwaters, and through the Blue Ridge Mountains to upper Kentucky.
A heavily used trace crossed the Ohio River at the Falls of the Ohio and ran west, crossing the Wabash River near Vincennes, Indiana.
The bison paved the way for the railroads to the Pacific.
Bison as a symbol
The American bison is often used in North America in official seals, flags, and logos. In the United States, the American Bison is a popular symbol in the Great Plains states. Kansas, Oklahoma, and Wyoming have adopted the animal as their official state mammal, and many sports teams have chosen the bison as their mascot.
In Canada, the bison is the official animal of the province of Manitoba and appears on the Manitoba flag. It is also used in the official coat of arms of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Several American coins feature the bison, perhaps most famously on the reverse side of the "buffalo nickel" from 1913 to 1938. In 2005, the United States Mint coined a nickel with a new depiction of the bison as part of its "Westward Journey" series.
The Kansas and North Dakota state quarters, part of the "50 State Quarter" series, each feature bison.
Dangers to humans
Bison are among the most dangerous animals encountered by visitors to the various U.S. and Canadian National Parks, especially Yellowstone National Park. Although they are not carnivorous, they will attack humans if provoked.
They appear slow because of their sluggish movements, but they can easily outrun humans. They have been seen running as fast as 35 miles per hour (56 km/h).
Between 1978 and 1992, nearly five times as many people in Yellowstone National Park were killed or injured by bison as by bears (56 by bison, 12 by bears). Bison are also more agile than one might expect, given the animal's size and body structure.
Interesting facts about American bison
- The scientific name for the bison is Bison bison.
- “Bison” is both singular and plural.
- A bison’s hump is made of muscle and supported by its vertebrae.
- Its hump helps the bison use its head as a snow plow.
- Its horns can grow up to two feet long.
- Bison eat plants and forage for nine to eleven hours per day.
- A bison’s tail shows its mood. It may charge if its tail is standing up.
- Bison cannot see long distances well, but they have excellent hearing and a keen sense of smell.
- Bison are more agile than they look. They can jump six feet, swim well, turn around quickly, and run up to 35 miles per hour.
- Bison ruminate their food like cows.
Images for kids
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Adult male (hindmost) and adult female (foremost), in Yellowstone National Park
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Male plains bison in the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma
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Skeleton of plains bison
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An adult European bison
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Bison herd grazing at the Bison Range in Montana
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Bison fighting in Grand Teton National Park in Moose, Wyoming
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Bison herd grazing in Chihuahua, Mexico
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Wood bison reintroduction program in Sakha Republic.
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A herd of American bison grazing at Tall Grass Prairie Preserve in Osage County, Oklahoma
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Calf
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A bison wallowing on dirt near Lamar River Canyon
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A grizzly bear feeding on an American bison carcass.
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Tourists approach dangerously close to a wild herd of American bison to take a photograph in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
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Map from 1889 by William Temple Hornaday, illustrating his book, The Extermination of the American Bison
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A wood bison around Coal River in Canada
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Big Medicine (1933–1959) was a sacred white buffalo that lived on the Bison Range (permanent display at the Montana Historical Society)
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Bison being chased off a cliff as "seen" and painted by Alfred Jacob Miller
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Ulm Pishkun. Buffalo jump, SW of Great Falls, Montana. The Blackfoot drove bison over cliffs in the autumn to secure the winter supply. The Blackfoot used pishkuns as late as the 1850s.
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Bison hunt under the wolf-skin mask, 1832–33
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Series 1901 $10 legal tender depicting military explorers Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and an American bison
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First postage stamp with image of bison was issued US in 1898—4¢ "Indian Hunting Buffalo", part of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition commemorative series
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See also
In Spanish: Bisonte americano para niños
