Global InformationAmerican bison information
| American bison Temporal range: Early Holocene – present
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| Plains bison (Bison bison bison) | |
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| Wood bison (Bison bison athabascae) | |
Conservation status
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 Near Threatened (IUCN 3.1)[1] | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Bovidae |
| Subfamily: | Bovinae |
| Subtribe: | Bovina |
| Genus: | Bison |
| Species: | B. bison
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| Binomial name | |
| Bison bison (Linnaeus, 1758)
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| Subspecies | |
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B. b. athabascae (wood bison) | |
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| IUCN range of the two American bison subspecies.
Plains bison (Bison bison subsp. bison)
Wood bison (Bison bison subsp. athabascae)
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| Synonyms | |
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The American bison (Bison bison; pl.: bison), also called the American buffalo or simply buffalo (not to be confused with true buffalo), is a species of bison native to North America. It is one of two extant species of bison, alongside the European bison. Its historical range, by 9000 BCE, is described as the great bison belt, a tract of rich grassland that ran from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico, east to the Atlantic Seaboard (nearly to the Atlantic tidewater in some areas), as far north as New York, south to Georgia, and according to some sources, further south to Florida, with sightings in North Carolina near Buffalo Ford on the Catawba River as late as 1750.[2][3][4]
Once roaming in vast herds, the species nearly became extinct by a combination of commercial hunting and slaughter in the 19th century and introduction of bovine diseases from domestic cattle. With an estimated population of 60 million in the late 18th century, the species was culled down to just 541 animals by 1889 as part of the subjugation of the Native Americans, because the American bison was a major resource for their traditional way of life (food source, hides for clothing and shelter, and horns and bones for tools).[5][6] Recovery efforts expanded in the mid-20th century, with a resurgence to roughly 31,000 wild bison as of March 2019.[7] For many years, the population was primarily found in a few national parks and reserves. Through multiple reintroductions, the species now freely roams wild in several regions in the United States, Canada and Mexico. American Bison have also been introduced to Yakutia in Russia.[8]
Two subspecies or ecotypes have been described: the plains bison (B. b. bison), smaller in size and with a more rounded hump, and the wood bison (B. b. athabascae)—the larger of the two and having a taller, square hump.[9][10][11][12][13][14] Furthermore, the plains bison has been suggested to consist of a northern plains (B. b. montanae) and a southern plains (B. b. bison) subspecies, bringing the total to three.[12] However, this is generally not supported. The wood bison is one of the largest wild species of extant bovid in the world, surpassed only by the Asian gaur.[15] Among extant land animals in North America, the bison is the heaviest and the longest, and the second tallest after the moose.
Spanning back millennia, Native American tribes have had cultural and spiritual connections to the American bison. It is the national mammal of the United States.
- ^ Aune, K.; Jørgensen, D. & Gates, C. (2018) [errata version of 2017 assessment]. "Bison bison". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2017: e.T2815A123789863. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-3.RLTS.T2815A45156541.en. Retrieved February 17, 2022. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is "Near Threatened".
- ^ Project Gutenburg E Book – The Extermination of the American Bison
- ^ "American Buffalo (Bison bison) species page". U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Retrieved February 24, 2013.
- ^ William T. Hornaday, Superintendent of the National Zoological Park (February 10, 2006) [1889]. The Extermination of the American Bison. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved on February 24, 2013.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Smits1994was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
buffalo genocidewas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Aune, K., Jørgensen, D. & Gates, C. 2017. Bison bison (errata version published in 2018). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017: e.T2815A123789863. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-3.RLTS.T2815A45156541.en. Downloaded on March 6, 2019.
- ^ "Tras un siglo de ausencia el bisonte americano regresó a territorio mexicano". infobae (in European Spanish). Infobae. January 8, 2021. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
- ^ Geist V. (1991). "Phantom subspecies: the wood bison, Bison bison "athabascae" Rhoads 1897, is not a valid taxon, but an ecotype". Arctic. 44 (4): 283–300. doi:10.14430/arctic1552.
- ^ Kay, Charles E.; Clifford A. White (2001). "Reintroduction of bison into the Rocky Mountain parks of Canada: historical and archaeological evidence" (PDF). Crossing Boundaries in Park Management: Proceedings of the 11th Conference on Research and Resource Management in Parks and on Public Lands. Hancock, Michigan: George Wright Soc. pp. 143–51. Retrieved December 2, 2009.
- ^ Bork, A. M.; C. M. Strobeck; F. C. Yeh; R. J. Hudson & R. K. Salmon (1991). "Genetic relationship of wood and plains bison based on restriction fragment length polymorphisms" (PDF). Can J Zool. 69 (1): 43–48. doi:10.1139/z91-007. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 10, 2017. Retrieved December 2, 2009.
- ^ a b Halbert, Natalie D.; Terje Raudsepp; Bhanu P. Chowdhary & James N. Derr (2004). "Conservation Genetic Analysis of the Texas State Bison Herd". Journal of Mammalogy. 85 (5): 924–931. doi:10.1644/BER-029.
- ^ Wilson, G. A. & C. Strobeck (1999). "Genetic variation within and relatedness among wood and plains bison populations". Genome. 42 (3): 483–96. doi:10.1139/gen-42-3-483. PMID 10382295.
- ^ Boyd, Delaney P. (April 2003). Conservation of North American Bison: Status and Recommendations (PDF). University of Calgary. doi:10.11575/PRISM/22701. ISBN 9780494004128. OCLC 232117310. Archived from the original (MS thesis) on September 28, 2007. Retrieved February 23, 2010.
- ^ Garrick, Dorian; Ruvinsky, Anatoly (November 28, 2014). The Genetics of Cattle, 2nd Edition. ISBN 9781780642215.