Bison

People often use the words ‘bison’ and ‘buffalo’ for the same animal, but we use ‘buffalo’ for the Asian water buffalo and the African buffalo. They have long curvy horns. The American bison have shorter horns. Bison are different in another way too. They have beards and huge humps on their shoulders. Bison and buffalo are different, but they are from the same family of animals as cows, goats and sheep.

Bison are huge animals, and some male bison can be as heavy as 2,000 pounds. Bison often live and travel in groups to be safe from danger. The male bison use their heads and horns to fight each other for dominance.

Bison have a lot of hair on their body, so in winter, they don’t feel cold. In winter, they use their heads to clear snow out of their way and to find plants to eat. Bison are herbivores. That means they like eating plants.

In the past, millions of bison lived in North America. However, humans killed a lot of them for food. Today, groups of people and the government keep bison in national parks to protect them and increase their numbers.