American Bison: A Natural History (Organisms and Environments, 6) (Paperback)

by Dale F. Lott (Author), Harry W. Greene (Foreword) "The sky really is bigger in Montana-a colossal inverted bowl of vivid blue..." (more)
Key Phrases: tending bull, effective breeding population, percent calf crop, North America, Great Plains, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
This rare jewel of a book is the most extensive description of bison natural history ever published. It will be of value to the scholar as a synthesis and state-of-the-art review, but at the same time it is fun, witty, intriguing, often fascinating, and targeted to the educated lay reader. Not only does behavioral ecologist Lott (Intraspecific Variation in the Social Systems of Wild Vertebrates) have the academic chops to write such a book-he is a biology professor emeritus of the University of California, Davis-but he also literally grew up among the buffalo (his father was superintendent of the National Bison Range). Here he details the history of the American bison, bison physiology, conservation efforts past and present, and the relationships buffalo have with other buffalo as well as such grasslands cohorts as wolves, badgers, prairie dogs, coyotes, and grizzlies. While the text has no citation numbers, a notes section at the end directs the scholar to the sources used. Highly recommended for all academic and public libraries.
Lynn C. Badger, Univ. of Florida Lib., Gainesville
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
The American bison--known almost universally, if inaccurately, as buffalo--was the dominant species of the Great Plains. These enormous (2,000 pounds for a mature bull) bovines once covered the grasslands of the American West, roughly 30 million strong, until the "pacification" of the Native Americans and the concurrent slaughter of the bison reduced the great herds to mere thousands in the late 1800s. Lott, a retired wildlife professor who has written numerous scientific papers on bison, has produced a wonderful introduction to this most American mammal. Drawing on his research, the studies of other scientists, and some of the historic writings on the species, the author has put together a marvelous state-of-the-art examination of what is known about the bison. Lott writes of bison with immediacy and fondness--he grew up on the National Bison Range in Montana--tempered with a scientist's careful winnowing of the facts and mixed into a narrative form that invites the reader to explore. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 245 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (November 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520240626
• ISBN-13: 978-0520240629
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #616,613 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bison Basics, Beautifully Told, October 6, 2002

By	R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: American Bison: A Natural History (Hardcover)

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 their eggs in the nests of some other species which gets tricked to raising cowbirds instead of real progeny. Prairie dog towns are favored by bison, as both animals like closely cropped grass. The bison wallow around and damage the tunnels, but they also "bring something to the party... Of course, buffalo chips don't produce a fertilizer as quickly as, say Miracle-Gro, so the bison are a little like a dinner guest bringing a bottle of wine so new it must be aged a few years to be palatable." Ferrets, wolves, and grizzlies wander through these pages, too. It is an evocative book, beautifully written, by someone who loves these magnificent and forlorn beasts and is obviously eager for the reader to get to know them, too.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Buffalo for Dummies, August 2, 2007

By	Thomas M. Kearns (Arlington, WA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I searched for this book in my local library to read before buying. After reading it, I decided it was not worth my money.

I first must say I have quiet a bit of expereince with Buffalo since I have raised them for almost 15 years. Actually you could say they have taught me how to satisfy their needs so they don't leave my ranch. My herd started at two animals and grew to over 50 at one time.

I was hoping to read a more indepth description of buffalo biology and behavior. Unfortunately I consider this a rather shallow explaination of buffalo behavior. There are parts of the book that I must agree, however. Buffalo are wild animals therefore are often unpredictable. They are large, fast and protective of their young. A buffalo can kill you very quickly and anyone who thinks they have tamed a buffalo can be seriously surprised.

The author seems to believe that the only real buffalo is a wild animal fenced in a national park. In numerious pages he speaks negatively of ranchers who raise buffalo for meat or other products. Any reader should understand that 90% of all buffalo in the US are privately owned. The original surviving buffalo were privately owned. Governements, both US and Canada have only a small portion of the existing population.

One item of interest to me is how the scientific community estimated the maximum herd size of the American Buffalo. The process is rather shallow in its data and the estimation procedure. Several of the assumptions used in the calculation do not reflect actual buffalo behavior.

Oh well, enough of my critisizum. If you want to learn about buffalo read this book but do not consider it complete or accurate. Search out a buffalo herd and visit it. There are herds in every state including AK & HI. Private ranchers will tell and teach you more indepth knowledge than this elementary primer on the subject.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Should be required reading for Americans., March 29, 2007

By	E. Tompkins (NW Wyoming) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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!