Bison

Share Top Five November 7, 2018

Two extant and six extinct species are recognised. Of the six extinct species, five became extinct in the Quaternary extinction event. Bison palaeosinensis evolved in the Early Pleistocene in South Asia, and was the evolutionary ancestor of B. priscus, which was the ancestor of all other Bison species. From 2 MYA to 6,000 BC, steppe bison ranged across the mammoth steppe, inhabiting Europe and northern Asia with B. schoetensacki , and North America with B. antiquus, B. latifrons, and B. occidentalis. The last species to go extinct, B. occidentalis, was succeeded at 3,000 BC by B. bison,more info:wiki

Below are photos and Images you may like:

#10 Bison,more info:wikipedia

#9 Germany’s ‘first wild bison in 250 years’ shot dead by authorities,more info:independent

#8 When You Want The Best…You Need Bison Entertainment,more info:bisonentertainmentgroup

#7 Ancient Road Infrastructure Created by Bison,more info:thelaurelofasheville

“It is probable that buffaloes made the first roads over these mountains, and that the Indians, following where they led, made their trading paths by pursuing these highways. It is still more probable that the buffaloes instinctively sought the ways that were leveled and shortest between the best pastures, thus insuring a passage through the lowest gaps and to the richest lands… they wanted to go by the easiest routes and to the countries which afforded the best support.” ~John Preston Arthur in Western North Carolina: A History from 1730 to 1913

Our southern Appalachian home is known for its beautiful back-country roads and myriad hiking trails. If you are driving an older mountain road along a creek valley, or hiking over a mountain gap, there’s a good chance your route came into being as a buffalo trail thousands of years ago.

The Eastern Wood Bison, like the Great Plains Bison out West, was called “buffalo” by European emigrant settlers, and is one of three subspecies of North American bison. The third subspecies is the Athabascan Wood Bison of the northern boreal region of Canada and Alaska. This thought-to-be-extinct bison was rediscovered in 1957 and restored to small but viable populations. Our Eastern Wood Bison was slightly smaller, had a more distinct hump, shaggy forehead fur and horns that reached higher than its forehead. This eastern subspecies was killed to extinction by 1825, the last one near Asheville having been shot on Bull Creek in 1799 by Joseph Rice.