From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bisons
are large,
even-toed ungulates
. They are
bovines
, and are similar to
cows
. They are often called buffalo, but are not closely related to the
African buffalo
or
water buffalo
.
Bison live in the northern part of the world. The American bison lives in
North America
where they once wandered around the
prairies
in huge
herds
. The wisent lives in
Europe
. Bison can also live in rugged areas.
The American bison is the biggest
mammal
in
North America
.
[1]
There used to be as many as 30 million bison in the United States, but because of hunting, by 1890, only 1000 bison were left.
[2]
Through
conservation
efforts, there are now more American bison than there used to be, but still far fewer than there were before the 1800s.
European bison (
wisent
) tend to live in lightly wooded to fully wooded areas and areas with increased
shrubs
and
bushes
, though they can also live on
grasslands
and plains.
They are classified in the subfamily
Bovinae
of the
family
Bovidae
.
They live to be about 20 years old and are born without their "hump" or horns, which both males and females have. After shedding their lightly colored hair, and with their horns, they are grown at 2 to 3 years of age, but males keep growing slowly until seven years. Adult bulls are very dominant in mating season. Adult bison usually have one or two baby bison.
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Bison
.