Feature Species: North American Bison
- can distinguish smells from 3 km away
- at one time used traditional migration routes across the prairies that are still visible from the air as deep, worn paths
- during the mating season “bull roarings” can be heard for kilometres
Once numbering from 30 million to 70 million in herds spread over the continent’s central plains, the North American bison is today considered a threatened species in Canada. The largest Canadian land mammal, the bison has two subspecies: the plains bison and wood bison.
Learn more about Canada’s large ungulates: caribou, moose, mountain sheep, muskox, North American elk and white-tailed deer.
