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Overview |
- Special Protection Status
- Rangewide:
Protected on refuges and preserves. Also domesticated and
harvested for human consumption.
- In Park:
All plants and animals are protected within Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Collection requires a permit which is usually granted only for
research or educational purposes.
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Identification |
- Adult total length:
7 - 12 1/2 ft. (210 - 380 cm)
- Tail:
12 - 19 in. (30 - 48 cm)
- Hind foot:
5 - 6 in. (150 - 180 cm)
- Weight:
793 - 2000 lbs. (360 - 900 kg)
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Physical Characteristics:
The bison is the largest land mammal in North America. The head is
broad and massive, the neck short, and the shoulders are high and
humped. The long, woolly fur on the head, neck, shoulders, and front
legs is blackish-brown; the fur on the body is short and brown. A
beard is present on the chin. The tail is short and tufted at the tip.
The short, dark, upwardly-curled horns are more massive in males.
The hooves are black with a nearly circular print.
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Phylogeny |
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Geographic distribution |
Bison formerly ranged through the plains of central North America from Mexico
north into Canada and east as far as New York, Maryland, and Florida. These animals
have been said to be the "most abundant game animal that civilized man ever beheld"
(Cahalane, 1944). Today, bison exist only in zoological parks
and in a few herds on refuges and preserves. Free-ranging bison occur only at Wood
Buffalo National Park, Northwest Territories, Canada; in Yellowstone National Park,
Wyoming; and in the National Bison Range near Missoula, Montana.
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Range Maps
| North America |
Great Smokies |
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Great Smoky Mountains National Park:
The history of bison in western North Carolina and eastern
Tennessee has been summarized in Linzey
(1995a; 1995b):
Bison were probably extirpated in this part of the country
during the late eighteenth century.
Brimley (1945) recorded that these mammals
originally ranged over much of North Carolina, but were exterminated
about 1760.
Dr. J. A. Allen (1876) summarized information
regarding the history of this animal in Tennessee. He noted that they
formerly passed over the Cumberland and Great Smoky Mountain ranges by way
of the Holston and French Broad Rivers to and from the Valley of East Tennesse.
However, the majority were confined to the Cumberland Valley and its tributaries.
He concluded that the point of greatest abundance was undoubtedly in the
"blue-grass region" of the vicinity of Nashville and reported that the
"hills and coves of the Allegheny Mountains in Tennessee," which were covered with
large tracts of native grasses, attracted the bison fro the lowlands in the summer.
Kellogg (1939) noted that the number of bison in eastern
Tennesse was never very great but they were "present in some numbers" in the western
part of the state. He quoted Ramsey (1853),
who stated that in 1783 a locality in Cumberland County was a "vast upland
prairie, covered with a most luxuriant growth of native grasses, pastured over
as far as the eye could see, with numerous herds of deer, elk, and buffalo."
Apparently, some bison were still present in the region around Nashville in
June, 1795, and in Putnam County in December, 1799. In 1823, Haywood
stated that "at this time there is not one in the whole State of Tennessee."
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References |
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Cahalane, V. H. 1944.
Buffalo-wild or tame? American Forests, October, 1944: 472-475.
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Linzey, D. W. 1995a.
Mammals of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Blackburg, Virginia: The McDonald &
Woodward Publishing Company, Inc.
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Linzey, D. W. 1995b.
Mammals of Great Smoky Mountains National Park-1995 Update. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell
Scientific Society 111(1):1-81.
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Meagher, M. 1986.
Bison bison. Mammalian Species No. 266: 1-8. American Society of Mammalogists.
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Acknowledgements |
- Text
- Photographs
- Map development
- Web page design & coding
- Denise Lim, University of Georgia, Athens
- Dr. John Pickering, University of Georgia, Athens
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