Buffalo — Largest, Cute Calves, Fight, Mate Rare
Buffalo -- Largest, Cute Calves, Fight, Mate RareIrenaScott
57 sec - Aug 31, 2008
The Buffalo is the largest North American Animal. This video shows huge bison demonstrating the fighting, digging, wading, foraging, and mating behavior shown by these animals. This video is unique for several reasons. It may be the only video of bison mating. Very few videos exist of bison fighting or of pronghorn antelope fighting. No videos exist of bison watching pronghorn fight (later the buffalo broke up the fight --to be shown in more detail in another video). The bison is the largest land animal in North America. They can reach up to 2 meters (6.6 ft) tall, 3 meters (10 ft) long and can weigh 900 to 2,100 pounds (400 to 1000 kg). The largest individuals on record have weighed as much as 2,500 pounds (1,130 kg). The heads and forequarters are massive, and both sexes have short, curved horns, which they can use in fighting for status within the herd and for defense. The American bison (Bison bison) is a bovine (related to cattle) mammal, also called the American buffalo. Two subspecies exist, the plains bison (Bison bison bison), which is distinguished by its smaller size and more rounded hump, and the wood bison (Bison bison athabascae), which is distinguished by its larger size and taller square hump. The wood bison is one of the world's largest species of cattle, surpassed in size only by the massive Asian gaur and wild Asian water buffalo. They are a keystone species-a force that shaped the ecology of the Great Plains. America's first thoroughfares were bison and deer traces, including the Cumberland Gap. Today's bison came from a few individuals that survived the slaughter of the buffalo. Once huge herds roamed the country. The animals are dangerous, and considered among the most dangerous of park animals. They will attack people if provoked. They can easly outrun humans and can run as fast as 35 mph. In Yellowstone, over 4 times as many people were killed or injured by bison, than by bears. As shown in the video, bison escape easily. Although they are large and don't look like they can, they have the ability to leap over a standard barbed-wire fence. I didn't have the camera turned on in time to catch the escapee jumping the fence.
