AnimalvsAnimal
Bison bison.🦬

Photo: Jack Dykinga · Public domain

SpeciesArtiodactylaBovidae
Mammals

🦬American bison

Bison bison (Linnaeus, 1758)

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.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Videos
152
Photos
6
Measurements
15
vs you
≈ 10× your weight
Conservation status
NTNear threatened

IUCN Red List assessment, 2017.

Population trendStable
Key measurements
Body mass
625 kg
Body length
2.9 m
Shoulder height
1.66 m
Top speed
52 km/h
Bite force
not recorded
Maximum lifespan
33 years
All measurements ↓
Facts and figures

Everything we know about the American bison

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass
625 kg
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 630 kgAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: high
Body length
2.9 m
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Shoulder height
1.66 maverage1.54–1.76 m · range across sexes
Other figures ↓

Species-level value synthesised as the mean of: female, male.

By sex

  • Male1.76 mMeagher 1986, Mammalian Species 266, p.1Value is the midpoint of the published range.
  • Female1.54 mMeagher 1986, Mammalian Species 266, p.1Value is the midpoint of the published range.
Top speed
52 km/h
Details ↓

Sprint over a short distance, not a sustained pace. Compilations give 52.0 and 54.43 km/h.

Source: Christiansen 2002, Zool J Linn Soc 136:685 and Bejan & Marden 2006, J Exp Biol 209:238; compiled in Hirt et al. 2017, Nat Ecol Evol 1:1116, Supplementary Data · see citation

Brain mass
334 g
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Maximum lifespan
33 years
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 34 yearsAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: high
Generation length
12 years
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Age at maturity
2.5 years
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Gestation
274 days
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 274 daysAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: high
Litter size
1
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 1AnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: high
Trophic level
Herbivore
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Activity cycle
Crepuscular / mixed
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Home range
47 km²
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Population density
0.15 per km²
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Volume l
625 Laverage
Details ↓

Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.

average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.

Not recorded for American bison yet: bite force.

Where it sits

Family tree

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. ›phylumChordata
  3. ›classMammalia
  4. ›orderArtiodactyla
  5. ›familyBovidae
  6. ›genusBison
  7. ›speciesBison bison
Full lineage
  1. classMammals · Mammalia
  2. orderEven-toed hoofed animals · Artiodactyla
  3. familyBovidae
  4. subfamilyBovinae
All 15 branches ↓
  1. kingdomMetazoa
  2. phylumChordata
  3. subphylumCraniata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. superclassGnathostomata
  6. superclassSarcopterygii
  7. superclassTetrapoda
  8. classMammals · Mammalia
  9. subclassTheria
  10. superorderLaurasiatheria
  11. orderEven-toed hoofed animals · Artiodactyla
  12. suborderRuminantia
  13. infraorderPecora
  14. familyBovidae
  15. subfamilyBovinae
More

More about the American bison

Closest relative on this site
🐃 Domestic yak — last shared an ancestor ≈ 2.0 million years ago.
What it eats
leaves, roots and other plants100%
In other languages
Amerikanischer Bison (de), Bison bison (es), Bison d'Amérique (fr), bizon amerykański (pl), 北美野牛 (zh), amerikai bölény (hu) … and 27 more languages
More photos
Bison bison.The largest mammal in North America, an adult male bison can weigh 2,000 pounds! Females are smaller, weighing no more than 1,000 pounds.Photo by Tina Shaw/USFWS.
All 6 photos in the gallery →

Animals caught on camera

Real footage of the animals on this site — hunting, fighting, and getting on with it.

See all 152 videos →
Tools

Compare the American bison

Pick a tool — the American bison is already selected.

Side by side

Compare every stat with any other animal.

1,697 animals to compareOpen →
Who's bigger?

Stand them on the same floor and see who's bigger.

54th heaviest of 1,330Open →
Scaling lab

Does it punch above its weight? Its stats against what body size predicts.

1.39× predictedOpen →
Tree of life

See where it sits in the tree of life.

15 branchesOpen →