Overview

The American bison is the largest land mammal in North America, with bulls weighing over 900 kilograms and sporting massive heads covered in thick wool. They can run at 65 km/h and jump nearly two metres vertically — surprising agility for an animal that looks like a living boulder.

Bison shaped the Great Plains ecosystem for millennia, grazing grasslands and creating wallows that become mini-wetlands. Driven to the edge of extinction by the 1890s, they have recovered through conservation herds in Yellowstone, Badlands, and private ranches.

Habitat

Grassland, prairie, and open woodland across the western US and Canada suit bison. Yellowstone National Park holds the only continuously wild population that has never been domesticated.

Countries found

Interesting facts

01
Bison can run at 65 km/h and jump 1.8 metres vertically from a standstill.
02
Their hump is muscle, not fat — used for ploughing through snow.
03
Bison were nearly extinct by 1890 — fewer than 1,000 remained.

Conservation status

NT — Near Threatened

American bison are Near Threatened as a wild species, though large numbers exist in commercial herds. True wild genetics survive mainly in Yellowstone and a handful of other conservation herds.