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88-811: The near-extinction of the bison by hunters and the defeat of the Comanche , Lakota , Cheyenne and other tribes of Indians after the American Civil War (1861-1865) opened up the last large acreages of land for cattle ranching on the Great Plains from the Canadian border on the north to the Texas panhandle in the south. Northern plains ranches were stocked with cattle from Texas . In 1868, cattle were first driven north from Texas to ranches in Nebraska . In eastern Montana and

176-607: A low-pressure area whose center of rotation is just off the coast and whose leading winds in the left-forward quadrant rotate onto land from the northeast. High storm waves may sink ships at sea and cause coastal flooding and beach erosion . Notable nor'easters include The Great Blizzard of 1888 , one of the worst blizzards in U.S. history. It dropped 100–130 cm (40–50 in) of snow and had sustained winds of more than 45 miles per hour (72 km/h) that produced snowdrifts in excess of 50 feet (15 m). Railroads were shut down and people were confined to their houses for up to

264-490: A brown bear or a pack of wolves. The rutting, or mating, season lasts from June through September, with peak activity in July and August. At this time, the older bulls rejoin the herd, and fights often take place between bulls. The herd exhibits much restlessness during breeding season. The animals are belligerent, unpredictable, and most dangerous. American bison live in river valleys and on prairies and plains. Typical habitat

352-688: A code of ethics that prohibits its members from deliberately crossbreeding bison with any other species. In the United States, many ranchers are now using DNA testing to cull the residual cattle genetics from their bison herds. The proportion of cattle DNA that has been measured in introgressed individuals and bison herds today is typically quite low, ranging from 0.56 to 1.8%. There are also remnant purebred American bison herds on public lands in North America. Two subspecies of bison exist in North America:

440-692: A cold front and warm front mix together and a blizzard forms at the border line. Another storm system occurs when a cold core low over the Hudson Bay area in Canada is displaced southward over southeastern Canada, the Great Lakes, and New England . When the rapidly moving cold front collides with warmer air coming north from the Gulf of Mexico , strong surface winds, significant cold air advection , and extensive wintry precipitation occur. Low pressure systems moving out of

528-461: A dusting of snow and areas such as Birmingham, Alabama , received up to 12 in (30 cm) with hurricane-force wind gusts and record low barometric pressures . Between Louisiana and Cuba, hurricane-force winds produced high storm surges across northwestern Florida, which along with scattered tornadoes killed dozens of people. In the United States, the storm was responsible for the loss of electric power to over 10 million customers. It

616-640: A fertile hybrid of bison and domestic cattle. A market even exists for kosher bison meat; these bison are slaughtered at one of the few kosher mammal slaughterhouses in the U.S. and Canada, and the meat is then distributed worldwide. In America, the commercial industry for bison has been slow to develop despite individuals, such as Ted Turner , who have long marketed bison meat. In the 1990s, Turner found limited success with restaurants for high-quality cuts of meat, which include bison steaks and tenderloin. Lower-quality cuts suitable for hamburger and hot dogs have been described as "almost nonexistent". This created

704-633: A low of −30 °C (−22 °F), with up to 180 centimetres (71 in) of snow in the more mountainous regions, killing at least 926 people. It was the third deadliest blizzard in history. The weather also claimed more than 100,000 sheep and goats, and nearly 315,000 cattle died. The winter of 1880–1881 is widely considered the most severe winter ever known in many parts of the United States. The initial blizzard in October 1880 brought snowfalls so deep that two-story homes experienced accumulations , as opposed to drifts, up to their second-floor windows. No one

792-633: A marketing problem for commercial farming because the majority of usable meat, about 400 pounds for each bison, is suitable for these products. In 2003, the United States Department of Agriculture purchased $ 10 million worth of frozen overstock to save the industry, which would later recover through better use of consumer marketing. Restaurants have played a role in popularizing bison meat, like Ted's Montana Grill , which added bison to their menus. Ruby Tuesday first offered bison on their menus in 2005. In Canada, commercial bison farming began in

880-478: A newspaper report said "more snow has fallen this year than any previous year in west Dakota." Bismark , North Dakota reported temperatures of −43 °F (−42 °C) on February 1 and 12. The winter weather even reached the West Coast, with snowfall of 3.7 inches in downtown San Francisco setting an all-time record on February 5, 1887. A chinook wind melted the snow in early March and ranchers began to assess

968-426: A prolonged period of time—typically three hours or more. Environment Canada defines a blizzard as a storm with wind speeds exceeding 40 km/h (25 mph) accompanied by visibility of 400 metres (0.25 mi) or less, resulting from snowfall, blowing snow, or a combination of the two. These conditions must persist for a period of at least four hours for the storm to be classified as a blizzard, except north of

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1056-413: A specialized stomach prior to digestion. Bison were once thought to almost exclusively consume grasses and sedges, but are now known to consume a wide-variety of plants including woody plants and herbaceous eudicots. Over the course of the year, bison shift which plants they select in their diet based on which plants have the highest protein or energy concentrations at a given time and will reliably consume

1144-419: A stretch of line a new storm arrived, burying it again. There were no winter thaws and on February 2, 1881, a second massive blizzard struck that lasted for nine days. In towns the streets were filled with solid drifts to the tops of the buildings and tunneling was necessary to move about. Homes and barns were completely covered, compelling farmers to construct fragile tunnels in order to feed their stock. When

1232-424: A time, particularly where snowfall is unusual or rare. A severe blizzard has winds over 72 km/h (45 mph), near zero visibility, and temperatures of −12 °C (10 °F) or lower. In Antarctica , blizzards are associated with winds spilling over the edge of the ice plateau at an average velocity of 160 km/h (99 mph). Ground blizzard refers to a weather condition where loose snow or ice on

1320-456: A true whiteout, there is no visible horizon. People can become lost in their own front yards, when the door is only 3 m (10 ft) away, and they would have to feel their way back. Motorists have to stop their cars where they are, as the road is impossible to see. A nor'easter is a macro-scale storm that occurs off the New England and Atlantic Canada coastlines. It gets its name from

1408-526: A week. It killed 400 people, mostly in New York . The 1972 Iran blizzard , which caused 4,000 reported deaths, was the deadliest blizzard in recorded history. Dropping as much as 26 feet (7.9 m) of snow, it completely covered 200 villages. After a snowfall lasting nearly a week, an area the size of Wisconsin was entirely buried in snow. The 2008 Afghanistan blizzard , was a fierce blizzard that struck Afghanistan on 10 January 2008. Temperatures fell to

1496-518: 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

1584-465: Is also considered correct as a result of standard usage in American English, and is listed in many dictionaries as an acceptable name for American buffalo or bison. "Buffalo" has a much longer history than "bison", which was first recorded in 1774. Bison was a significant resource for indigenous peoples of North America for food and raw materials until near extinction in the late 19th century. For

1672-632: Is found in Europe and the Caucasus , reintroduced after being extinct in the wild . While bison species have been traditionally classified in their own genus , modern genetics indicates that they are nested within the genus Bos , which includes, among others, cattle, yaks and gaur , being most closely related to yaks. Bison are sometimes bred with domestic cattle and produce offspring called beefalo , in North America, or żubroń , in Poland. The American bison and

1760-651: Is found on the plains around the Henry Mountains , Utah , as well as in mountain valleys of the Henry Mountains to an altitude of 3,000 metres (10,000 ft). European bison most commonly live in lightly wooded to fully wooded areas as well as areas with increased shrubs and bushes. European bison can sometimes be found living on grasslands and plains as well. Throughout most of their historical range, landowners have sought restrictions on free-ranging bison. Herds on private land are required to be fenced in. In

1848-499: Is low. Reproduction is dependent on a cow's mass and age. Heavier cows produce heavier calves (weighed in the fall at weaning), and weights of calves are lower for older cows (after age 8). Owing to their size, bison have few predators. Five exceptions are humans , grey wolves , cougars , grizzly bears , and coyotes . Wolves generally take down a bison while in a pack, but cases of a single wolf killing bison have been reported. Grizzly bears also consume bison, often by driving off

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1936-504: Is open or semiopen grasslands, as well as sagebrush, semiarid lands, and scrublands. Some lightly wooded areas are also known historically to have supported bison. They also graze in hilly or mountainous areas where the slopes are not steep. Although not particularly known as high-altitude animals, bison in the Yellowstone Park bison herd are frequently found at elevations above 2,400 metres (8,000 ft). The Henry Mountains bison herd

2024-554: Is the namesake of Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada. A third subspecies, the eastern bison ( B. b. pennsylvanicus ) is no longer considered a valid taxon , being a junior synonym of B. b. bison . References to "woods bison" or "wood bison" from the Eastern United States refer to this subspecies, not B. b. athabascae , which was not found in the region. The European bison , B. bonasus , or wisent, or zubr, or colloquially European buffalo,

2112-509: The Antelope Island bison herd are regularly inoculated against brucellosis, parasites, Clostridium infection, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, and bovine vibriosis. The major illnesses in European bison are foot-and-mouth disease and balanoposthitis . Inbreeding of a small population plays a role in a number of genetic defects and lowers immunity to disease; that poses greater risk to

2200-712: The Henry Mountains bison herd to be free of brucellosis , a bacterial disease that was imported with non-native domestic cattle to North America. In 2021, the American Society of Mammalogists considered Bison to be a subgenus, and placed both bison species back into Bos . Relationships of bovines based on nuclear DNA, after Sinding, et al. 2021. Bubalina (true buffalo) Bos primigenius + Bos taurus (aurochs and cattle) Bos mutus (wild yak) Bison bison (American bison) Bison bonasus (European bison/wisent) Bos javanicus (banteng) Bos gaurus (gaur) Bos sauveli (kouprey) Wallowing

2288-742: The Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene in Asia. The earliest members of the bison lineage, known from the Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene of the Indian Subcontinent ( Bison sivalensis ) and China ( Bison palaeosinensis ), approximately 3.4-2.6 million years ago (Ma) are placed in the subgenus Bison ( Eobison ) . The oldest remains of Eobison in Europe are those Bison georgicus found in Dmanisi , Georgia, dated to around 1.76 Ma. More derived members of

2376-638: The United States Army Signal Corps , the predecessor of the National Weather Service , issued a warning of a cold wave descending onto the southern plains. That morning, Larned, Kansas enjoyed mild temperatures but by midnight the town closed down due to blizzard conditions. In Dodge City the temperature dropped to −16.2 °F (−26.8 °C) and Austin, Texas recorded a low of −6.5 °F (−21.4 °C) degrees. Heavy winds piled up snow two to three feet (.5 to 1.0 mts) deep in

2464-445: The arctic tree line , where that threshold is raised to six hours. The Australia Bureau of Meteorology describes a blizzard as, "Violent and very cold wind which is laden with snow, some part, at least, of which has been raised from snow covered ground." While severe cold and large amounts of drifting snow may accompany blizzards, they are not required. Blizzards can bring whiteout conditions, and can paralyze regions for days at

2552-500: The indigenous peoples of the Plains , it was their principal food source. Native Americans highly valued their relationship with the bison and saw them as sacred, treating them respectfully to ensure their abundance and longevity. In his biography, Lakota teacher and elder John Fire Lame Deer describes the relationship as such: The buffalo gave us everything we needed. Without it we were nothing. Our tipis were made of his skin. His hide

2640-415: The mitochondrial DNA of European bison is more closely related to that of domestic cattle and aurochs (while the mitochondrial DNA of American bison is closely related to that of yaks). This discrepancy is either suggested to be the result of incomplete lineage sorting or ancient introgression . Bison are widely believed to have evolved from a lineage belonging to the extinct genus Leptobos during

2728-774: The plains bison and the wood bison . Herds of importance are found in Yellowstone National Park , Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota , Blue Mounds State Park in Minnesota , Elk Island National Park in Alberta , and Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan . In 2015, a purebred herd of 350 individuals was identified on public lands in the Henry Mountains of southern Utah via genetic testing of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA. This study, published in 2015, also showed

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2816-573: The 19th and 20th centuries, but have since rebounded. The wisent in part owes its survival to the Chernobyl disaster, as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone has become a kind of wildlife preserve for wisent and other rare megafauna such as the Przewalski's horse , though poaching has become a threat in recent years. The American Plains bison is no longer listed as endangered , but this does not mean

2904-484: The 19th century, although the causes of decline and the numbers killed are disputed and debated. Railroads were advertising "hunting by rail", where trains encountered large herds alongside or crossing the tracks. Men aboard fired from the train's roof or windows, leaving countless animals to rot where they died. This overhunting was in part motivated by the U.S. government's desire to limit the range and power of indigenous plains Indians whose diets and cultures depended on

2992-647: The American and European bison. The American species has 15 ribs, while the European bison has 14. The American bison has four lumbar vertebrae, while the European has five. (The difference in this case is that what would be the first lumbar vertebra has ribs attached to it in American bison and is thus counted as the 15th thoracic vertebra, compared to 14 thoracic vertebrae in wisent.) Adult American bison are less slim in build and have shorter legs. American bison tend to graze more, and browse less than their European relatives. Their anatomies reflect this behavioural difference;

3080-588: The American bison's head hangs lower than the European's. The body of the American bison is typically hairier, though its tail has less hair than that of the European bison. The horns of the European bison point through the plane of their faces, making them more adept at fighting through the interlocking of horns in the same manner as domestic cattle, unlike the American bison, which favours butting. American bison are more easily tamed than their European cousins, and breed with domestic cattle more readily. The bovine tribe (Bovini) split about 5 to 10 million years ago into

3168-632: The Asian water buffalo and the African buffalo . Samuel de Champlain applied the French term buffle to the bison in 1616 (published 1619), after seeing skins and a drawing shown to him by members of the Nipissing First Nation , who said they travelled 40 days (from east of Lake Huron) to trade with another nation who hunted the animals. Though "bison" might be considered more scientifically correct, "buffalo"

3256-521: The Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. Disputes resulted in the threat of violence between Indians and ranchers and in 1885 President Grover Cleveland ordered the ranchers to remove their cattle from Indian territory. This added more than 200,000 cattle to the already over-grazed land in the Texas panhandle and Kansas. "Pastures that could have sustained 'a cow on every 40 acres had one on every 10 acres.'" Adding to

3344-710: The DV) of thiamine. The earliest plausible accounts of captive bison are those of the zoo at Tenochtitlan , the Aztec capital, which held an animal the Spaniards called "the Mexican bull". In 1552, Francisco Lopez de Gomara described Plains Indians herding and leading bison like cattle in his controversial book, Historia general de las Indias . Gomara, having never visited the Americas himself, likely misinterpreted early ethnographic accounts as

3432-846: The European bison (wisent) are the largest surviving terrestrial animals in North America and Europe. They are typical artiodactyl (cloven hooved) ungulates, and are similar in appearance to other bovines such as cattle and true buffalo. They are broad and muscular with shaggy coats of long hair. Adults grow up to 2 metres (6 feet 7 inches) in height and 3.5 m (11 ft 6 in) in length for American bison and up to 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) in height and 2.9 m (9 ft 6 in) in length for European bison. American bison can weigh from around 400 to 1,270 kilograms (880 to 2,800 pounds) and European bison can weigh from 800 to 1,000 kg (1,800 to 2,200 lb). European bison tend to be taller than American bison. Bison are nomadic grazers and travel in herds . The bulls leave

3520-585: The North Atlantic Ocean on March 15. It is unique for its intensity, massive size and wide-reaching effect. At its height, the storm stretched from Canada towards Central America, but its main impact was on the United States and Cuba. The cyclone moved through the Gulf of Mexico, and then through the Eastern United States before moving into Canada. Areas as far south as northern Alabama and Georgia received

3608-524: The Rocky Mountains onto the Great Plains, a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie , steppe and grassland , can cause thunderstorms and rain to the south and heavy snows and strong winds to the north. With few trees or other obstructions to reduce wind and blowing, this part of the country is particularly vulnerable to blizzards with very low temperatures and whiteout conditions. In

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3696-485: The Texas panhandle and New Mexico, closing roads for up to one month. Galveston Bay on the Gulf of Mexico froze. Prior to the blizzard, an estimated 2.5 million cattle inhabited the southern plains. The cattle were prevented from migrating to sheltered and more southerly areas by the drift fences and their bodies piled up near the fences, in rivers, and along the railroads. Ranchers in New Mexico cut their fences to allow

3784-534: The United States, the National Weather Service defines a blizzard as a severe snow storm characterized by strong winds causing blowing snow that results in low visibilities. The difference between a blizzard and a snowstorm is the strength of the wind, not the amount of snow. To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have sustained winds or frequent gusts that are greater than or equal to 56 km/h (35 mph) with blowing or drifting snow which reduces visibility to 400 m or 0.25 mi or less and must last for

3872-528: The Wild (made by Diamond Pet Foods, Inc., owned by Schell and Kampeter, Inc.). Blizzard A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds and low visibility, lasting for a prolonged period of time—typically at least three or four hours. A ground blizzard is a weather condition where snow that has already fallen is being blown by wind. Blizzards can have an immense size and usually stretch to hundreds or thousands of kilometres. In

3960-416: The bison's population to nearly 150,000, and it is officially no longer considered an endangered species . However, from a genetic standpoint, most of these animals are actually hybrids with domestic cattle and only two populations in Yellowstone National Park in the United States and Elk Island National Park in Canada remain as genetically pure bison. These genetically pure animals account for only ~5% of

4048-533: The blizzards in the southern plains in early 1886 was compounded by conditions later that year, especially on the northern plains. The summer and fall were dry and grass was in poor condition for grazing cattle. The first blizzard of winter occurred on November 22 and 23. Cattle had trouble digging through the snow to reach to grass underneath. In late December the weather turned very cold reaching an unofficial temperature of −35 °F (−37 °C) at Glendive, Montana . Bitterly cold weather returned in late January and

4136-427: The buffalo herds. The overhunting of the bison reduced their population to hundreds. The American bison's nadir came in 1889, with an estimated population of only 1,091 animals (both wild and captive). Repopulation attempts via enforced protection of government herds and extensive ranching began in 1910 and have continued (with excellent success) to the present day, with some caveats. Extensive farming has increased

4224-402: The buffalos ( Bubalus and Syncerus ) and a group leading to bison and taurine cattle. Genetic evidence from nuclear DNA indicates that the closest living relatives of bison are yaks , with bison being nested within the genus Bos , rendering Bos without including bison paraphyletic . While nuclear DNA indicates that both extant bison species are each other's closest living relatives,

4312-516: The cattle to seek shelter in sheltered valleys. Twenty-five percent of the cattle north of the Canadian River where drift fences were present are estimated to have died; south of the river the losses were only one percent. Individual ranchers often lost a larger percentage of their herds. Cowboys were put to work harvesting hides of dead cattle and 400,000 were marketed in Dodge City. The impact of

4400-534: The children's book The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder , in which the author tells of her family's efforts to survive. The snow arrived in October 1880 and blizzard followed blizzard throughout the winter and into March 1881, leaving many areas snowbound throughout the winter. Accurate details in Wilder's novel include the blizzards' frequency and the deep cold, the Chicago and North Western Railway stopping trains until

4488-498: The currently extant American bison population, reflecting the loss of most of the species' genetic diversity. As of July 2015, an estimated 4,900 bison lived in Yellowstone National Park , the largest U.S. bison population on public land. During 1983–1985 visitors experienced 33 bison-related injuries (range = 10–13/year), so the park implemented education campaigns. After years of success, five injuries associated with bison encounters occurred in 2015, because visitors did not maintain

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4576-441: The direction the wind is coming from. The usage of the term in North America comes from the wind associated with many different types of storms, some of which can form in the North Atlantic Ocean and some of which form as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. The term is most often used in the coastal areas of New England and Atlantic Canada . This type of storm has characteristics similar to a hurricane . More specifically, it describes

4664-618: The females were fertile. The crossbred animals did not demonstrate any form of hybrid vigor , so the practice was abandoned. Wisent-American bison hybrids were briefly experimented with in Germany (and found to be fully fertile) and a herd of such animals is maintained in Russia. A herd of cattle-wisent crossbreeds ( zubron ) is maintained in Poland. First-generation crosses do not occur naturally, requiring caesarean delivery. First-generation males are infertile. The U.S. National Bison Association has adopted

4752-428: The first recorded use of it for weather dates to 1829, when it was defined as a "violent blow". It achieved its modern definition by 1859, when it was in use in the western United States . The term became common in the press during the harsh winter of 1880–81. In the United States, storm systems powerful enough to cause blizzards usually form when the jet stream dips far to the south, allowing cold, dry polar air from

4840-472: The first time I have been utterly unable to enjoy a visit to my ranch. I shall be glad to get home." Many of the ranchers went broke. In Custer County, Montana the tax rolls in 1886 listed 200 ranchers; in 1888 the total was 120. The number of cattle shipped to eastern U.S. markets from Montana in 1887 was only two-thirds that of 1886 even though in 1887 ranchers engaged in panic selling of their remaining cattle in an effort to remain financially viable. Despite

4928-519: The genus are placed in the subgenus Bison ( Bison ), which first appeared towards the end of the Early Pleistocene, around 1.2 Ma, with early members of the subgenus including the widespread Bison schoetensacki . The steppe bison ( Bison priscus ) first appeared during the mid- Middle Pleistocene in eastern Eurasia, and subsequently became widely distributed across Eurasia. During the late Middle Pleistocene, around 195,000-135,000 years ago,

5016-453: The ground is lifted and blown by strong winds. The primary difference between a ground blizzard as opposed to a regular blizzard is that in a ground blizzard no precipitation is produced at the time, but rather all the precipitation is already present in the form of snow or ice at the surface. The Oxford English Dictionary concludes the term blizzard is likely onomatopoeic, derived from the same sense as blow, blast, blister, and bluster ;

5104-467: The herds of females at two or three years of age, and join a herd of males, which usually are smaller than female herds. Mature bulls rarely travel alone. Towards the end of the summer, for the reproductive season, the sexes necessarily commingle. American bison are known for living in the Great Plains , but formerly had a much larger range, including much of the eastern United States and parts of Mexico. Both species were hunted close to extinction during

5192-412: The higher quality forage that regrows after the burn. Wisent tend to browse on shrubs and low-hanging trees more often than do the American bison, which prefer grass to shrubbery and trees. Female bison ("cows") typically reproduce after three years of age and can continue beyond 19 years of age. Cows produce calves annually as long as their nutrition is sufficient, but not after years when weight gain

5280-478: The horns borne by both males and females, but their massive heads can be used as battering rams, effectively using the momentum produced by what is a typical weight of 900 to 1,200 kilograms (2,000 to 2,700 lb) moving at 50 km/h (30 mph). The hind legs can also be used to kill or maim with devastating effect. In the words of early naturalists, they were dangerous, savage animals that feared no other animal and in prime condition could best any foe except for

5368-443: The impact of the winter on their cattle. Some estimates were low (to reassure investors) but most ranchers estimated losses of 50 to 90 percent of their herds. Roosevelt's cattle ranches near Medora, Dakota Territory were among those hit hard by that winter. In a letter to his friend Henry Cabot Lodge , Roosevelt remarked "Well, we have had a perfect smashup all through the cattle country of the northwest. The losses are crippling. For

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5456-537: The investors was future-president Theodore Roosevelt who established two ranches in western North Dakota in 1883 and 1884. The Big Die-up impacted both the northern and southern Great Plains. The winter of 1885-1886 was mild on the northern plains but the blizzard of January 1886 was catastrophic for ranchers on the southern plains. The winter of 1886-1887 had a wider impact with the Big Die-up killing hundreds of thousands of cattle and bankrupting many ranchers on both

5544-502: The land was vacant, publicly-owned, and available to whoever chose to occupy it. Prices for beef were high, land was free, and domestic and foreign investors rushed into the business. Investors believed that "no other business is so safe nor so profitable as cattle raising." The land in 1880 was unfenced open range . Cattle drifted with the seasons and sought out good grazing until rounded up by cowboys and herded to railroad terminals from where they were transported to eastern markets. Among

5632-561: The late Middle Pleistocene, where it existed in sympatry with the steppe bison. Its relationship with other extinct bison species is unclear, though it appears to be only distantly related to the steppe and American bisons, with possibly some interbreeding between the two lineages during the Middle Pleistocene. The steppe bison survived into the early-mid Holocene in Alaska-Yukon and eastern Siberia, before becoming extinct. During

5720-566: The losses and the poor condition of the grasslands, the plains recovered quickly -- aided by the reduction in the number of cattle and favorable weather during the remainder of 1887 and 1888. Prices for cattle improved in 1888, but in the words of one historian "the days of the open range never returned." The Big Die-up caused changes in the ways of the cattlemen. Laws increasingly restricted the right of cattlemen to graze on "open" (publicly-owned) lands. The number of small scale ranchers proliferated. They built fences to enclose their herds and improved

5808-504: The mid-1980s, concerning an unknown number of animals then. The first census of the bison occurred in 1996, which recorded 45,235 bison on 745 farms, and grew to 195,728 bison on 1,898 farms for the 2006 census. Several pet food companies use bison as a red meat alternative in dog foods. The companies producing these formulas include Natural Balance Pet Foods , Freshpet , the Blue Buffalo Company, Solid Gold, Canidae, and Taste of

5896-472: The more familiar pastoralist relationship of the Old World . Today, bison are increasingly raised for meat , hides , wool , and dairy products. The majority of bison in the world are raised for human consumption or fur clothing. Bison meat is generally considered to taste very similar to beef, but is lower in fat and cholesterol , yet higher in protein than beef, which has led to the development of beefalo ,

5984-677: The north to clash with warm, humid air moving up from the south. When cold, moist air from the Pacific Ocean moves eastward to the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains , and warmer, moist air moves north from the Gulf of Mexico , all that is needed is a movement of cold polar air moving south to form potential blizzard conditions that may extend from the Texas Panhandle to the Great Lakes and Midwest . A blizzard also may be formed when

6072-687: The northern and southern plains. In 1875 the Indian tribes of the southern Great Plains had been relocated to Indian Territory (Oklahoma). The Texas panhandle was open to white settlement and by 1880 ranches had been established throughout the panhandle. The severe winter of 1880-1881 caused many cattle in Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska to migrate southward in search of shelter and good grazing. They competed with locally-owned cattle, putting pressure on pastures. The Panhandle Stock Raisers Association decided to string drift fences of barbed wire from east to west across

6160-519: The northern edge of each rancher's range to prevent cattle from further north straying into the Panhandle. The longest of the drift fences stretched westward for 200 mi (320 km) from Higgins across the width of the Panhandle and into New Mexico . In 1883, With the Texas panhandle already crowded with cattle, ranchers leased 3,000,000 acres (12,000 km) of land in Indian Territory from

6248-482: The pack and consuming the wolves' kill. Grizzly bears and coyotes also prey on bison calves. Historically and prehistorically, lions , cave lions , tigers , dire wolves , Smilodon , Homotherium , cave hyenas , and Neanderthals posed threats to bison. For American bison, a main illness is malignant catarrhal fever , though brucellosis is a serious concern in the Yellowstone Park bison herd. Bison in

6336-528: The pipe leaning against it, was our sacred altar. The name of the greatest of all Sioux was Tatanka Iyotake—Sitting Bull . When you killed off the buffalo you also killed the Indian—the real, natural, "wild" Indian. European colonials were almost exclusively accountable for the near-extinction of the American bison in the 1800s. At the beginning of the century, tens of millions of bison roamed North America. Colonists slaughtered an estimated 50 million bison during

6424-552: The population bottleneck caused by the great slaughter of American bison during the 19th century, the number of bison remaining alive in North America declined to as low as 541. During that period, a handful of ranchers gathered remnants of the existing herds to save the species from extinction. These ranchers bred some of the bison with cattle in an effort to produce "cattleo" (today called " beefalo "). Accidental crossings were also known to occur. Generally, male domestic bulls were crossed with bison cows, producing offspring of which only

6512-666: The population. The name 'bison' was first used for the European species ; ancient Greek authors Pausanias and Oppian in 2nd-century AD wrote about them in Greek as βίσων bisōn . Roman authors Pliny the Elder and Gaius Julius Solinus used the word bĭson in Latin as well. It was made into a genus name by Charles Hamilton Smith in 1827. Although called "buffalo" in American English, they are only distantly related to two "true buffalo",

6600-543: The problems in 1885, prices for cattle fell and autumn was unseasonably dry. In November large wildfires burned grassland from the Arkansas River in Kansas southward to northeastern New Mexico, the Oklahoma panhandle , and the Texas panhandle. The grass that remained was insufficient to sustain the cattle on the range. On January 1, 1886, a snowstorm dropped up to one foot (.30 m) of snow in western Kansas. On January 6, 1886,

6688-419: The process of wallowing, bison may become infected by the fatal disease anthrax , which may occur naturally in the soil. Bison temperament is often unpredictable. They usually appear peaceful, unconcerned, or even lazy, but they may attack without warning or apparent reason. They can move at speeds up to 56 km/h (35 mph) and cover long distances at a lumbering gallop. Their most obvious weapons are

6776-427: The quality of their cattle by introducing new breeds and providing them shelter, forage, and water rather than allowing them to roam freely. Ranching after the Big Die-up "became more a business, less a gamble." Bison A bison ( pl. : bison ) is a large bovine in the genus Bison (Greek: "wild ox" (bison) ) within the tribe Bovini . Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of

6864-466: The required distance of 75 ft (23 m) from bison while hiking or taking pictures. Bison is an excellent source of complete protein and a rich source (20% or more of the Daily Value, DV) of multiple vitamins, including riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B 6 , and vitamin B 12 , and is also a rich source of minerals, including iron, phosphorus, and zinc. Additionally, bison is a good source (10% or more of

6952-457: The same species of plants across years. Protein concentrations of the plants they eat tend to be highest in the spring and decline thereafter, reaching their lowest in the winter. In Yellowstone National Park, bison browsed willows and cottonwoods, not only in the winter when few other plants are available, but also in the summer. Bison are thought to migrate to optimize their diet, and will concentrate their feeding on recently burned areas due to

7040-458: The snow finally melted in late spring of 1881, huge sections of the plains experienced flooding. Massive ice jams clogged the Missouri River , and when they broke the downstream areas were inundated. Most of the town of Yankton , in what is now South Dakota, was washed away when the river overflowed its banks after the thaw. Many children—and their parents—learned of "The Snow Winter" through

7128-570: The species is secure. Genetically pure B. b. bison currently number only about 20,000, separated into fragmented herds—all of which require active conservation measures. The wood bison is on the endangered species list in Canada and is listed as threatened in the United States, though numerous attempts have been made by beefalo ranchers to have it entirely removed from the Endangered Species List . Although superficially similar, physical and behavioural differences exist between

7216-561: The spring thaw because the snow made the tracks impassable, the near-starvation of the townspeople, and the courage of her future husband Almanzo and another man, Cap Garland, who ventured out on the open prairie in search of a cache of wheat that no one was even sure existed. The Storm of the Century , also known as the Great Blizzard of 1993, was a large cyclonic storm that formed over the Gulf of Mexico on March 12, 1993, and dissipated in

7304-560: The state of Montana , free-ranging bison on public land are legally shot, due to transmission of disease to cattle and damage to public property. In 2013, Montana legislative measures concerning the bison were proposed and passed, but opposed by Native American tribes as they impinged on sovereign tribal rights. Three such bills were vetoed by Steve Bullock , the governor of Montana. The bison's circumstances remain an issue of contention between Native American tribes and private landowners. Bison are ruminants , able to ferment cellulose in

7392-681: The steppe bison migrated across the Bering land bridge into North America, becoming ancestral to North American bison species, including the large Bison latifrons , and the smaller Bison antiquus , which became extinct at the end of the Late Pleistocene. Modern American bison are thought to have evolved from B. antiquus during the Late Pleistocene-Holocene transition via the intermediate form Bison occidentalis . The European bison, Bison bonasus, first appeared in Europe during

7480-567: The two surviving species, the American bison , B. bison , found only in North America , is the more numerous. Although colloquially referred to as a buffalo in the United States and Canada, it is only distantly related to the true buffalo . The North American species is composed of two subspecies, the Plains bison , B. b. bison , and the wood bison , B. b. athabascae , which

7568-580: The western part of the Dakotas, settlement of ranches began in the 1870s. In 1876, Charles Goodnight established a ranch in Palo Duro Canyon in Texas (the heart of former Comanche land) and soon the Texas panhandle was dotted with large cattle ranches. After the Indians were forced onto reservations and their former lands became available to ranchers, the cattle industry boomed from 1880 to 1885. Most of

7656-539: Was our bed, our blanket, our winter coat. It was our drum, throbbing through the night, alive, holy. Out of his skin we made our water bags. His flesh strengthened us, became flesh of our flesh. Not the smallest part of it was wasted. His stomach, a red-hot stone dropped into it, became our soup kettle. His horns were our spoons, the bones our knives, our women's awls and needles. Out of his sinews we made our bowstrings and thread. His ribs were fashioned into sleds for our children, his hoofs became rattles. His mighty skull, with

7744-428: Was prepared for deep snow so early in the winter. Farmers from North Dakota to Virginia were caught flat with fields unharvested, what grain that had been harvested unmilled, and their suddenly all-important winter stocks of wood fuel only partially collected. By January train service was almost entirely suspended from the region. Railroads hired scores of men to dig out the tracks but as soon as they had finished shoveling

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