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The
American Bison is the largest land animal to roam North America. This giant member of
the cattle family can grow up to six-and-a-half feet at the shoulder and nearly twelve feet
long from head to tail. The bison's wide, flat nose, *** shoulders, two sharp horns,
and prominent foreheads are identifiable characteristics. In the winter, bison grow a double-layered
coat that keeps them insulated in even the most extreme temperatures. In the summer the
top coat is shedded and the bison turns a lighter color brown. This thick coat is one
of the American Bison's adaptations to the climate, along with their broad nose which
they use to push snow away during winter to get the grass beneath it. To communicate,
the bison use a series of grunts, snorts and growls. This gargantuan mammal has only a
few threatening predators like the gray wolf and grizzly bear so their lifestyle is relaxed.
Family life is split between the males and females. The bulls, or male bison, don't stay
with the rest of the herd, but they meet again for mating season which is August and September.
Grazing is the feeding technique used by these herbivores. They mainly feed on grass and
sedges in plains and grasslands. The herd moves to wherever the greenest vegetation
is. This movement may take up to three days depending on the size of the herd. The bison
plays an important role in its living community. Its niche is to keep grassland vegetation
growing, to healthily errode the soil and "provide" meals for its predators. It also
allows birds to feed on insects that swarm around the herd. Here is an example of a food
chain in which the bison may be. Today, most of the American Bison live in reservations,
National parks such as Yellowstone, or private farms. Researchers believe that less than
fifteen-thousand bison are actually living in a wild, un-fenced land. Before its extreme
population decline, the bison roamed the entire continent ranging from the Gulf of Mexico
to northern Canada and everywhere in between. The great slaughter of American bison in the
eighteen-hundreds reduced the population to less than a thousand at one point. People
wanted the species for meat and fur. the loss of this species contributes to loss of nutrients
in the soil and the drop in rate of vegetation growth. This affects the entire population
of the ecosystem. Without the nutrients in the soil, for example nitrogen which is provided
by the feces, the rest of the herbivores in the area are forced to flee causing a snowball
effect with every other species in the area. The American bison is currently classified
as "near threatened" which is an amazing improvement from "nearly extinct" which it was classified
as 200 years ago. In the rest of the world, bison are classified as "vulnerable". Experts
from the Wildlife Conservation Society predict a bright future for the species and its home
on the range within
the next one-hundred years.