American Bison

📖 1. Overview

The largest terrestrial mammal in North America, using its massive shoulder hump muscles to plow through 1 m deep snowdrifts like a bulldozer to graze in winter.

🌐 Wikipedia Summary Extract

The American bison, commonly known as the American buffalo, or simply buffalo, is a species of bison that is endemic to North America. It is one of two extant species of bison, along with the European bison. Its historical range circa 9000 BC is referred to as the great bison belt, a tract of rich grassland spanning from Alaska south to the Gulf of Mexico, and east to the Atlantic Seaboard, as far north as New York, south to Georgia, and according to some sources, further south to northern Florida, with sightings in North Carolina near Buffalo Ford on the Catawba River as late as 1750.

🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology

Despite its bulk approaching 1 ton, it possesses astonishing agility, sprinting at 56 km/h and leaping over 1.8 m fences from a standstill.

🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior

Reduced from tens of millions to around 300 individuals by indiscriminate overhunting in the late 19th century, it was restored through active conservation efforts and is the national mammal of the United States.

🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea

It is a benchmark species for temperate grassland ecosystem restoration and large herbivore grazing ecology.