This is actually pretty awesome. If there's any mammal that is distinctly American it would be the bison.

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This is actually pretty awesome. If there's any mammal that is distinctly American it would be the bison.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/27/bison-first-national-mammal-us-bald-eagle?CMP=share_btn_gp

Comments

John Bump said…
Weirdly, there is a very closely related European bison called a Wisent.  They live in forests, and much like the American bison at one point there were only a very, very small number left.  I think during WWII it was less than a hundred animals.  They're still super scarce.
April 28, 2016 at 10:26 PM
Jason ON said…
I had no idea there was a "bison" in Europe.
April 29, 2016 at 11:28 AM
John Bump said…
Apparently they're much more closely related to ours than cattle are, and cattle and bison can interbreed pretty easily.  I suspect most of the bison-looking creatures seen in ranches in northern colorado are actually bison/cattle hybrids because they're so much more manageable.  And smaller.  The bison I've seen in Wyoming look like minivans.
April 29, 2016 at 12:00 PM
Jason ON said…
Even the bison I've seen at the National Wildlife Center are the size of minivans.
April 29, 2016 at 4:16 PM
John Bump said…
There are fields full of bison-looking things west of Longmont, but a single meter-high fenceline of barbed wire is sufficient to keep them in, and they look just like bison... if they were roughly my height.  The ones up at the top of Genessee are significantly larger than the local ones.
April 29, 2016 at 4:22 PM
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