Wood Bison :: essays research papers

The Wood Bison are the largest aboriginal land mammals in North America. The wood bison were designated as an endangered species in 1978.Wood Bison are dark brown terrestrial mammals. They feature real massive heads. They have a shaggy brown coat with abundant, thick, scandalous get intods. Males have short black horns, which curve inward, while females have bang-up horns. These bison have very large shoulders and a massive hump on their backs. Males are larger than females and measure about 3 to 4 meters long and 1.75 meters high at the shoulders. They weigh between 500 and 1000 kilograms. They are very distinctive animals, capable of running at speeds up to 35 mph. Wood bison reach their sexual maturity somewhere between the ages of unitary and three years old. The gestational period for these animals is about 270 to 300 days. The females normally give birth twice over a three-year period and bear totally single calves, generally in the month of May. Twins are rare for the wood bison. Calves are weaned at about 7 months, unless are able to graze with the herds from the time they are a week old. Wood bison spend much of their time grazing. They enjoy a diet of wild oats, rye, and wheat, lichens, horsetails and berries. They swallow their food unchewed and when they rest later in the day, they bring up this unchewed food, called cud, and chew it.The main enemies of the wood bison are the wolf, coyote, and grayish bear. Of course, their main enemy is man This breed has also had numerous problems with disease. splenic fever was a major problem for these animals before 1978. They have also had problems with tuberculosis. other kind of threat is from overmastering. It is not uncommon for several hundred animals to drown by falling through thin ice. The wood bison was never an beingness with an extremely large population. In the 1800s, it was estimated that the population was at about 168,000 animals. They were or so hunted to extinction in the 19 th century. In fact, by 1893, it was estimated that only 250 wood bison existed. By 1922, their population rebounded to about 1500 animals. It was then that Wood overawe National Park was established. The goal of the park was to save the wood bison from extinction and to preserve their shrinking habitat. Inbreeding and disease once again diminished the herds, but in 1957, a herd of about 200 pure wood bison was discovered in a remote corner of the park.