Bison

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Bison

Bison is a taxonomic group containing six species of large even-toed ungulate

Even-toed ungulate

The even-toed ungulates form the mammal order Artiodactyla, the group that contains the pigs, peccary, hippopotamuses, camels, chevrotains , deer, giraffes, pronghorn, antelopes, sheep, goats, and cattle....
s within the subfamily Bovinae

Bovinae

The biological subfamily bovinae includes a diverse group of 10 genera of medium to large sized ungulates, including domestic cattle, the bison, the Bubalus, the yak, and the four-horned and spiral-horned antelopes....
. Only two of these species still exist: the American bison

American Bison

The American Bison is a bovinae mammal, also commonly known as the American buffalo. "Buffalo" is somewhat of a misnomer for this animal, as it is only distantly related to either of the two "true buffaloes", the Wild Asian Water Buffalo and the African buffalo....
(B. bison) and the European bison, or wisent

Wisent

File:Bison bonasus right eye close-up.jpgThe wisent , or European bison , is a bison species and the heaviest surviving Terrestrial animal in Europe....
(B. bonasus), each with two subspecies.

merican Western

Western (genre)

The Western is a fiction genre seen in film, television, radio, literature, painting and other visual arts. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the later half of the 19th century in what became the Western United States , but also in Western Canada, Mexico , Alaska and even Australia ....
culture, the bison is commonly referred to as "buffalo"; however, this is a misnomer: though both bison and buffalo belong to the Bovidae family, the term "buffalo" properly applies only to the Asian water buffalo and African buffalo

African Buffalo

The African Buffalo or Cape Buffalo is a large African bovid. It is up to 1.7 meters high, 3.4 meters long. Savannah type buffaloes weigh 500-900 kg, with only males, normally larger than females, reaching the upper weight range....
.

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Encyclopedia

Bison is a taxonomic group containing six species of large even-toed ungulate

Even-toed ungulate

Bovinae

American Bison

Wisent

Name

In American Western

Western (genre)

African Buffalo

Gaur

The gaur is a large, dark-coated bovine animal of South Asia and Southeast Asia. The biggest populations are found today in India. The gaur is the largest species of wild cattle, bigger than the African Buffalo, Wild Asian Water Buffalo and bison....
, a large, thick-coated ox

Oxen are bovinae trained as draught animals. Often they are adult, castration males. Oxen are used for ploughing, transport, hauling cargo, threshing grain by trampling, powering machines for grinding grain, irrigation or other purposes, and drawing carts and wagons....
found in Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
, is also known as the "Indian bison", although it is in the genus Bos
Bos

Bos is the genus of wild and domestication cattle. Bos can be divided into four subgenus: Bos, Bibos, Novibos, and Poephagus, but the distinction is controversial....
and thus not a true bison.

The plural

Plural

Plural is a grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the referent in the real world. In the English language, singular and plural are the only grammatical numbers....
of "bison" is normally also "bison", not "bisons".

Description

The American and European bison are the largest terrestrial mammal

Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
s in North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
and Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
. Bison are nomadic grazers and travel in herd

Herd

A herd is a large group of animals. The term is usually applied to mammals, particularly ungulates. Other terms are used for similar phenomena in other types of animal....
s, except for the non-dominant bulls, which travel alone or in small groups during most of the year. American bison are known for living in the Great Plains

Great Plains

The Great Plains are the broad expanse of prairie and steppe which lie west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada....
. Both species were hunted close to extinction

Extinction

In biology and ecology, extinction is the death of every member of a species or group of taxon. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of that species ....
during the 19th and 20th centuries but have since rebounded, although the European bison is still endangered

Endangered species

An endangered species is a population of an organism which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters....
.

Unlike the Asian water buffalo, bison have never been domesticated, although the American bison is kept on some farms.

Bison are born without their trademark hump and horns and live for approximately twenty years. They grow to maturity at two to three years, although males continue to grow until about their seventh year. Adult bulls express a high degree of dominance competitiveness during mating season. Male bison fight for females and these fights often result in injury or death. After the bison mate, the herd splits up into smaller herds. Calves are born nine months after mating. The mother

Mother

A mother is a biological and/or Maternal bond female parent of an offspring. Because of the complexity and differences of the social, cultural, and religious definitions and roles, it is challenging to define a mother in a universally accepted definition....
s take care of and nurse their young for a year.

Male bison grow to as much as to 11.5 feet (3.5m) long, and 6.5 feet (2m) tall at the shoulder and can weigh up to 2200lbs (998 kg).

Behavior

Wallowing

Wallowing is a common behavior of bison. A bison wallow is a shallow depression in the soil, either wet or dry. Bison roll in these depressions, covering themselves with mud or dust. Possible explanations suggested for wallowing behavior include grooming behavior associated with moulting, male-male interaction (typically rutting behavior), social behavior for group cohesion, play behavior, relief from skin irritation due to biting insects, reduction of ectoparasite load (ticks and lice), and thermoregulation. In the process of wallowing bison may become infected by the fatal disease anthrax

Anthrax

Anthrax is an Acute disease in humans and animals caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, which is highly lethal in some forms. There are effective vaccines against anthrax, and some forms of the disease respond well to antibiotic treatment....
, which may occur naturally in the soil.

Diet

Bison have a fairly simple diet

Diet (nutrition)

In nutrition, the diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual or culture makes when choosing what foods to eat....
. The bison's main food

Food

Food is any substance, usually composed of carbohydrates, fats, proteins and water, that can be Eating or Drinking by an animal or human for nutrition or pleasure....
is grass

Grass

Grass is the common word that generally describes monocotyledonous green plants. The family Poaceae are the "true grasses" and include most plants grown as grains, for pasture, and for lawns ....
. Bison also eat the low lying shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is a horticulture rather than strictly Botany category of woody plant, distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, usually less than 5-6 m tall....
bery that is available. In the winter, bison forage in the snow

Snow

Snow is a type of precipitation in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. The process of this precipitation is called snowfall....
looking for grass. If there is little grass available, bison have to resort to eating the twigs of the shrubs and plants.

Predators

Due to their large size few predators attack bison. Wolf packs, but not single wolves, could take down a bison. Brown bear

Brown Bear

The Brown Bear is a large bear distributed across much of northern Eurasia and North America. It weighs 100 to 700 kg and its larger populations such as the Kodiak bear match the Polar bear as the largest extant land predator....
s will also prey on calves, and have been observed driving off wolves to take over their kills.

In Yellowstone Park the strongest and most dominant wolf packs have been observed to take elk

Elk

Elk may refer to:* Various species of deer:** European Elk , also known as Moose** North American Elk , also known as Wapiti** Indian Elk , also known as sambar ...
and deer

Deer

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae . A number of broadly similar animals from related families within the order even-toed ungulate are often also called deer....
; they leave the bison, which is much harder to kill, to the weaker wolf packs.

Bison

Name

Description

Behavior

Wallowing

Diet

Predators

See also

Gallery