Size and Movement: An adult bull may be six feet tall at his shoulder, stretch nine feet in length, and weigh between 1,900 and 2,500 pounds. An average cow weighs 700 pounds and is smaller with a less shaggy head and a smaller hump. While they look slow and bulky, bison are fast and agile. They can outrun and easily out-maneuver most horses. A bison can sprint upwards of 40 miles per hour and can jump straight up from a complete standstill. Running buffalo have amazing endurance, and can run for miles without slowing. They have four gaits: the walk, the trot, the bound, and the gallop. Travelers often used buffalo trails. Lewis and Clark reported, “Buffalo have wonderful sagacity in the choice of their routes, and the coincidence of a buffalo with an Indian road was the strongest assurance that it was the best.”

Behavior: Bison usually go to water once or twice a day, but if water is scarce they can go without for several days, much longer than domestic cattle. Bison rely more on their noses than on their eyes. Some people estimate a bison can smell water up to ten miles away if the wind is right. Their sense of hearing is also excellent.

If they can find a little water on the ground, bison (in particular the bulls) will wallow. They roll and scuffle in the mud to enlarge the wet area, eventually managing to cake themselves in a muddy layer which prevents flies from biting. In unbroken grasslands in some parts of the United States (the Dakotas, Kansas, Oklahoma, elsewhere) one can still find old buffalo wallows. When trees are available, bison will rub against the bark, smoothing the sides of the tree. Younger trees may be knocked down completely. LLELA staff has used bison as a management tool, intentionally placing them in areas with dense, undesirable stands of woody vegetation. The bison will break paths and begin the process of clearing the brush, making it easier for human crews to work.

Family life: A bison cow usually gives birth nine months after mating. Normally only one calf is born, but twins are not unheard of. Male calves follow the mother for two years, then are driven from the herd. Female calves stay with the mother’s family for life. Most cows have a calf each year, generally giving birth from April to June. They seldom breed until they reach two years of age. A former keeper at the National Zoo, W.H. Blackburne, once timed a buffalo birth. From the moment the cow stopped eating hay to lie down to when she had cleaned the calf and begun nursing it was only 26 minutes. A buffalo calf has no hump. It starts out a bright brick red or cinnamon color, but will lose its birth color within a few weeks, gradually turning darker and darker. The hump develops rapidly. Calves must nurse frequently, because the cow’s milk supply at any one time is quite limited, as compared to cattle. Bison calves can gain 1-2 pounds per day until weaning at 7 months of age.