The American bison (Bison bison) is more closely related to cattle than to true buffalo, such as the water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis.) Nonetheless, early European settlers called the unfamiliar animal they encountered in North America a “buffelo” [sic] and this misnomer has persisted to the present. Because we are so accustomed to thinking of the American bison as a buffalo, the terms are used interchangeably in this chapter.

Long perceived to be an environmental casualty of the conquest of the Great Plains, the American bison has gradually reasserted its presence in North America. Today, there are around 200,000 of the animals alive on the continent, and the danger of species extinction appears to have passed (Callenbach 1996). However, any further expansion of the population is likely to be linked, at least in part, to the animal’s economic usefulness, especially as a food source. At present, only a limited number of people are acquainted with the taste of bison. For buffalo meat to become part of the national diet, the advertising and agricultural industries will have to reintroduce a food which, at an earlier time, was essential to many of the continent’s inhabitants.

In size and appearance, the bison is imposing and distinctive. A mature male stands from 5 to 6 feet tall at the shoulder and may weigh from 1,800 to 2,400 pounds. Noticeably smaller, females seldom weigh more than 800 pounds. Despite its bulk, the bison is quick and agile and can sprint at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour. Like domestic cattle and sheep, it is cloven hooved; unlike them, both the male and female possess large, curved horns and a prominent hump at the shoulder. Buffalo are usually dark brown in color, although their hue lightens to brownish-yellow during the spring. The animals have two types of hair: a long, coarse, shaggy growth covering the neck, head, and shoulders, and a shorter,woolly growth found on the remainder of the body.