Buffalo Bison

The American bison is a member of the Bovidae family of ruminants. The misnomer “buffalo” stems from early naturalists’ comparisons of the bison to the African or Asian buffalo. The bison population was just about destroyed in the late 1800s by a government-sanctioned campaign of extermination (intended to starve the “Indians”), but thanks to private efforts by individuals the animal was saved from extinction. There are approximately 350,000 bison in North America today

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