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Article: Buffalo (Bison)
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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BUFFALO (BISON)
BUFFALO (BISON).
Until the end of the last Ice Age, bison were a minor species in North America. As a warming climate destroyed much of the forage upon which Ice Age megafauna such as mammoths and mastodons relied, and as human hunters destroyed those megafauna who remained, bison emerged as the dominant species of the Great Plains. The grasslands may have supported as many as 30 million bison, but changing ecological factors such as drought, blizzards, wolf predation, and the competition of other grazing animals probably caused the bison population to fluctuate considerably.
For thousands of years, Native Americans hunted bison from foot. They surrounded herds, setting ...