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| American Bison
Lower Risk
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| Bison bison Linnaeus, 1758 |
Bison have a shaggy, dark brown winter coat, and a lighter brown (and lighter weight) summer coat. Bison can reach over 6 ft (2 m) tall, 10 ft (3 m) long and weigh over 2,000 lb (900 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 defense. Bison mate in August and September; a single reddish-brown calf is born the following spring, and nurses for a year. Bison are mature at three years of age, and have a life expectancy of 18–22 years.
Calves are born with a light brown fur coat which darkens as the animal matures. One very rare condition results in the white buffaloThe white buffalo is a rarely-occurring condition of juvenile American bison where an animal is born with a white fur coat. This is not an albino condition, as the animal's coat will transition from white to brown as the animal reaches adulthood. Also, th, where the calf has an entirely white coat. It is not to be confused with albino, since pigmentIn biology, pigment is any material resulting in color in plant or animal cells which is the result of selective absorption. Some biological material has so-called structural color, which is the result of selective reflection or iridescence, usually done still exists in the skin, hair, and eyes, and the animals will end up with a brown-colored coat as they mature. White buffalo are considered sacred by many Native AmericanNative Americans (also Indians Aboriginal Peoples American Indians First Nations Alaskan Natives or Indigenous Peoples of America are the indigenous inhabitants of Americas prior to the European colonization, and their modern descendants. This term compris.Bison were central to the lifestyle of the Plains Indians . Before the introduction of horseThis article discusses ungulate mammals. For other meanings of horse see Horse (disambiguation). The Horse Equus caballus is a large ungulate mammal, one of the seven modern species of the genus Equus''. It has long played an important role in transportats, buffalo were herded into large chutes made of rocks and willow branches and then stampeded over cliffs. These buffalo jumps are found in several places in the US and Canada.
Bison were hunted almost to extinctionIn biology and ecology, extinction is the disappearance of a species or group of species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of that species. In species which reproduce sexually, extinction of a species in the 19th centuryAlternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical ( 18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801- 1900. Events The Little Ice Age ended; as few as 750 bison existed in 1890. The Bronx Zoo maintained a remnant herd, from which populations were re-established in Yellowstone National Park and other wildlife preserves, beginning early in the 20th century. Some of these came from Charles Goodnight's ranch in the Texas Panhandle. A variety of privately-owned herds have also been established, starting from this population. The current American Bison population is estimated at 350,000, compared to an estimated 60–100 million before Columbus.
Hunters were paid by large railroad concerns to destroy entire herds for several reasons:
Bison are now raised for meat and hides. Over 250,000 of the 350,000 remaining bison are being raised for human consumption. Bison meat is lower in fat and cholesterol than beef which has led to the development of beefalo, a fertile cross-breed of bison and domestic cattle. Recent genetic studies of privately-owned herds of bison show that many of them include animals with genes from domestic cattle; there may be as few as 15,000 pure bison in the world. The numbers are uncertain because the tests so far used mitochondrial DNA analysis, and thus would miss cattle genes inherited in the male line; some of the hybrids look exactly like purebred bison.
The bison is a symbol of Manitoba, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the University of Colorado, Marshall University, and North Dakota State University, and was depicted on the reverse side of the U.S. " buffalo nickel" from 1913 to 1938.