🇺🇸United States·National Mammal·since 2016
🦬American Bison
From 30 million to a few hundred, and back.
Photo via Wikimedia Commons
Before European colonization, an estimated 30–60 million bison roamed North America. Industrial-scale hunting in the 1800s drove the species to fewer than 1,000 individuals by 1889. Through conservation efforts — including Yellowstone's herd and tribal recovery programs — the population now exceeds 500,000.
Why this animal?
Designated the National Mammal under the National Bison Legacy Act of 2016. Lawmakers cited the bison's ecological role, its central importance to Indigenous nations of the Great Plains, and the species' near-loss and recovery as a story embodying American resilience.
Things to know
- ·Bison can sprint at 35 mph and jump 6 feet vertically — much faster and more agile than they look.
- ·They use their massive heads as snow plows, sweeping aside drifts to reach grass underneath.
- ·Calves are born bright orange and stay that color for about three months.
- ·More than 80 Indigenous nations are part of the InterTribal Buffalo Council, which is restoring bison to Native lands.
- ·Yellowstone's herd is the only continuously wild bison population in the United States — direct descendants of pre-1900 bison.