Bison

Kingdom                    :Animalia
Phylum                       :Chordata
Class                           :Mammalia
Order                          :Artiodactyla
Family                        :Bovidae
Genus                         :Bison
Scientific Name         :Bison Bison

The bison is also known as the American bison and the American buffalo, although the bison is only thought to be very distantly related to the buffalo and the water buffalo found in Africa and Asia respectively.

The bison is one of the largest types of cow in the world with adult bison commonly growing to 2 meters tall or more. The bison typically have long shaggy hair if they inhabit colder regions and the bison in the warmer climates have shorter hair.

The wild bison has been hunted by humans for meat, skins and trophy hunting. The bison has only a handful of predators in the wild mainly due to the sheer size of the bison. Wolves, bears and cougars are amongst those animals that hunt the bison in their natural habitat.

The bison is considered to be the largest land mammal still in existence in North America, where the natural habitat of the bison ranged from Canada to Mexico. Due to loss of the bisons habitat and hunting, the bison are now only found in large herds in very remote areas and farmland.

Before the settlers arrived in North America in the 1800s there were approximately 60 - 100 million bison inhabiting the area, the settlers hunted the bison population down to a mere 1,000 from which the species has still not fully recovered.