American Bison: A Natural History

What a great job of telling the story of the American Bison and the ecology of the Great Plains! Dale Lott writes in such a pleasing style, the book was a pleasure from start to finish. Having recently moved to a spot in Wyoming where bison are roaming around my house, I wanted to learn more about them. The book delivered beautifully. Buy it!

I can't believe it's true, but it was the best book for me in 2004. Of course, I have a particular interest in bison and prairie wildlife but most of the books I read on those subjects are pretty dull and a chore to work through. In stark contrast, Lott's book is a joy to read. Just because a species is interesting doesn't ensure that a book on it will be. Lott gives these amazing creatures the treatment they deserve. The reader can tell that Lott really enjoyed writing this book. His writing is entertaining, humorous when appropriate and packed with a ton of information. Eveb if you're not into wildlife, bison or the prairie, I'd still recommend this book. Bison are an important part of the ecology, history and psychology of this nation. Lott reminds us that bison are in our blood.

"American Bison" by Dale F. Lott. The author, Dale Lott, has spent much of his life, if not his entire life, observing and studying the animals commonly called "buffalo". Clearly, this excellent book is a labor of love for him. He deals with all the relationships that the bison (buffalo) have established in order to survive, ranging from microscopic bacteria up to the greatest predator, Man. Chapters are devoted to obvious relationships such as Chapter 1, "Bull to Bull and Cow to Bull", interesting in how important the sex drive is, but also how important survival is. Some unseen relationships are described in Chapter 5, "Digestion: Grass to Gas and Chips" ... who would have thought? The buffalo (bison) once roamed this North American continent in the millions, and Professor Lott (Emeritus, U. Cal., Davis), spends an entire chapter (Chapter 8) on how many buffalo there once were. He makes a stand for 30 million or so, which is about half the 60 million bison usually accepted.Throughout the book, Prof. Lott sprinkles interesting comments which grab your attention. He defines the bison as "Living according to a `fat economy'", which means, as with bears, the bison must accumulate enough food reserves in the Spring and Summer to last them through the cruel Winter. He calls this, "making fat while the sun shines." In the chapter on "Digestion", he describes the necessity of bacteria in the many stomachs of bison for the breaking down of the grasses which they eat. Then, out of the clear blue, he brings in the analogy, "It's a sobering fact that 12 or 13 percent of a bottle of ...Champagne is bacteria pee." (Page 49) These little gems are scattered throughout an otherwise serious book that tells you more than you could imagine about the American Bison. Read the book because of the subject, but then, read the book just to see how many common sayings the author has twisted to fit the subject!

AMERICAN BISON by Dale F. LottIs the story of bulls and of cows.He conjures up the woolly herdComplete with the whys and the wows!It's not just the story of beasts of the west,The favorite Indian quarry.But tells of the Bison's doings and habitsIn a way that becomes quite the story.You'll learn about breeding the bison way,How the bulls have their way with their gals.How they spar with each other, with bluffs and with feints,And if they're not killed remain pals.It's the story of how this species becameThe symbol of The Frontier and The West,And tells why the woollies have lasted 'til nowDespite, as fools, doing our best,To make them only a memory In the minds of our daughters and sons.Thank goodness they're still around todayMost tipping the scales in the tons.You'll learn of bison physiology,Of this creature's majestic physique.You'll read of the grasslands, and others who liveIn a place filled with awe and mystique.Prairie dogs, wolves and grizzly bearsAnd pronghorns all live on the plains.The book tells of their relationships,How their struggle for balance remains.Lott makes his case that Buff remain wild,Rutting and grazing as in days long ago.I have to concede that his logic makes sense,While others would argue not so.So it's really the story of the modern BuffAnd just how they're doing today.Read this book and you will learnAbout life, The Buffalo Way!Douglas McAllister

Most of us grew up with cats or dogs as animal companions. Those who lived on farms had animals of wider acquaintance. Dale F. Lott was the grandson of the superintendent of the National Bison Range in Western Montana, and his father worked on the range as well. He writes, "I first encountered bison not as symbols of the West, the squandering of a natural resource, or a conservation triumph. They were simply the animals I had seen most often when I was a young child - enthralling in and of themselves." He went on to get his doctorate in biology, studying the huge animals he had grown up with. In _American Bison: A Natural History_ (University of California Press), he sums up the basics of bison. Thirty years of teaching seem to have given him an admirable power of storytelling, and his book is not only good for encompassing all the necessary natural history of the species, but also for his expression of personal encounters and feelings for the beasts.In every chapter, Lott describes with no slight awe how well tuned evolution made these animals for their world, a world which is no longer. The peculiar bison profile, for instance, the huge mound above the forelegs, the hanging head, and the skinny rump, equips them for quick motion around the front feet "on which they pirouette on the sod like a hockey player on ice". A bull has to be able to pivot and twist to protect his own flanks and to dig a horn into the flank of an opponent. He says of the surprisingly complicated system of rumination, by which bison carry around bacteria to break down grass for their future digestion, "It's so sophisticated that neither bison nor biologists would be likely to think of it, yet it was achieved by the perfectly purposeless, aimless, and automatic process of natural selection." Lott has spent a good deal of time in what is left of the wild, watching these animals, and he reports on the complicated negotiations and social systems they have developed. He has written not just of bison, but of the prairie itself, how it came to be, and how the bison, rather than just being predators of grass, kept the grass vibrant through the centuries before they were ranged in. Part of the story has to be that the grasslands are no longer home to bison, and that the paying grasses we put on them are taking away the soil the bison helped build up. Bison are in small herds, with a risk of inbreeding, or being domesticated, with a risk of losing their complex wild behavior. The worrisome future of bison is not the theme of this book, though. Throughout Lott shows an engaging eagerness to describe anything he has seen in his prairie fieldwork. Cowbirds, for instance, used to be buffalo birds, roaming the plains with the bison and thus unable to stick around long enough to raise a family. They can now stick around non-roaming cows, which do a sufficient job of stirring up insects for them to eat, but they still don't raise their own families; they still deposit the