Bison
FUN FACTS
ABOUT BISON:
- There were over
60 million bison in North America when Christopher Columbus
first landed on the continent.
- The scientific
name of a bison is easy to remember. It is Bison bison.
- Early settlers
found bison in western New York state and that is how the city
of Buffalo, New York got its name.
- They were easy
animals to hunt and provided a lot of meat for early settlers.
They were over-hunted though and disappeared from all lands
east of the Mississippi by 1832.
- A single herd of
bison often numbered three to five million animals.
- One cavalry troop
described a herd that they watched for three days. It was over
60 miles long and stretched beyond the horizon for its full
length.
- Trains were occasionally
held up for days while bison herds crossed their paths.
- Bison are the largest
land mammals in North America. Large bulls often weigh 2000
lbs. and a rare individual occasionally weighs 2500 lbs.
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