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American Bison: A Natural History (Organisms and Environments) [Paperback]

Dale F. Lott (Author), Harry W. Greene (Foreword)

4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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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 Bestsellers Rank: #434,063 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!

Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
The sky really is bigger in Montana-a colossal inverted bowl of vivid blue. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
tending bull, effective breeding population, percent calf crop, bison range, bison population, wild bison, hide hunt, central grasslands, bison calves, buffalo birds, wood bison, bison bulls, million bison, percent population growth, mature bulls, plains bison, bison bison

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
North America, Great Plains, United States, Rocky Mountains, Big Medicine, South Dakota, Yellowstone Park, Native Americans, Wood Buffalo Park, American Bison Society, Catalina Island, American Prairie, Blue Babe, Jim Shaw, Mississippi River, Missouri River, San Francisco, Arkansas River, Jerry Wolff, New York, Red River, Samuel Walking, World War, Alan Rutberg, Mount Evans

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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!

Citations (learn more)

This book cites 41 books:

Blue Babe: The Story of a Steppe Bison Mummy from Ice Age Ala by Mary Lee Guthrie on page 61, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
Postcards from the United States by Denise Allard on page 186, and page 187
The Way to the West: Essays on the Central Plains (Calvin P. Horn Lectures in Western History and Culture) by Elliott West in Back Matter
Buffalo Nation (Wildlife) by Valerius Geist in Back Matter
North American Indians (Penguin Classics) by George Catlin in Back Matter

See all 41 books this book cites

8 books cite this book:

To Save The Wild Bison: Life On The Edge In Yellowstone by Mary Ann Franke on 4 pages
American Bison: A Natural History by Dale F. Lott in Front Matter (1), and Front Matter (2)
Prairie Dog Empire: A Saga of the Shortgrass Prairie by Paul A. Johnsgard in Back Matter
A Bat Man in the Tropics: Chasing El Duende (Organisms and Environments) by Theodore H. Fleming in Front Matter
Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America (Organisms and Environments) by Paul S. Martin in Front Matter

See all 8 books citing this book

Books on Related Topics (learn more)

The Destruction of the Bison by Andrew C. Isenberg

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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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Average Customer Review

4.6 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 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.

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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On being a Bison, January 23, 2003

By	B. Moorhead (Port Angeles, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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

This slim book provides a very thorough and scholarly, yet slyly humorous, and beautifully written summary of what modern biological and behavioral scientists have discovered about the American Bison and how they live their lives. The author has distilled decades of his own and others' research into a concise yet engaging account of what it's really like to be a bison. I found it a joy to read and suspect that it's one of, if not the, best book ever written about these fascinating and important animals. If you've always been attracted to bison, have wanted to read one book telling the most about them, and are not daunted by wading through a little science clearly presented, then this is probably the book for you.

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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Anyone interested in the American Bison should own this book, April 7, 2005

By	A. Burchfield (Conway, Missouri USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

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

Not just a book about the American Bison (commonly called Buffalo)itself but also just about anything connected with them. You'll get information about herd ranges- past & present, current population estimates (and worries about the future of the herd, and scholars best guesses about what historical numbers might have been.
Dr. Lott writes extensively about behavior of the bison, some of this comes from 3 generations of personal family experience and includes items I hadn't read or heard of before. You'll even find extensive material about plant and other animal life that live with these animals and how many of them are interrelated.
He even covers the human/hunting aspects and their effects on what the bison was/is. Someone out to hunt buffalo might get some hints but the book isn't aimed at them.
If you've ever seen a buffalo you'll want this book, you really ought to consider it even if you don't ever plan on looking them up (That is the skimpiest part of the book, finding out just where the remaining bison herds are today).
I gave $40 for the hardcover, I think the paperback is $11.95, not cheap but a pretty good value for one of the best bison books I've got.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Great Plains Biology
The book is well-written, has good personal experience & insight into bison and biology. The bison connection to other great plains flora & fauna is explained. Read more

Published 16 months ago by J. A. Trimble

3.0 out of 5 stars Buffalo for Dummies
I searched for this book in my local library to read before buying. After reading it, I decided it was not worth my money. Read more

Published on August 2, 2007 by Thomas M. Kearns

5.0 out of 5 stars Should be required reading for Americans.
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... Read more

Published on March 29, 2007 by E. Tompkins

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome, whether or not you like bison
This is one of those books that should leap into your shopping cart even if you're not inherently interested in the topic. Read more

Published on July 8, 2005 by Arthur Digbee

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book I read in 2004
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... Read more

Published on March 16, 2005 by T. Lalley

5.0 out of 5 stars A FASCINATING READ!
AMERICAN BISON: A NATURAL HISTORY by Dale F. Lott provides an in-depth look at one of the most important and historic animals to ever tread the Great Plains of North America. Read more

Published on May 31, 2004 by D. McAllister

5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT
"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"... Read more

Published on February 13, 2004 by John P. Rooney

5.0 out of 5 stars LIFE...THE BUFFALO WAY
AMERICAN BISON by Dale F. Lott
Is the story of bulls and of cows.
He conjures up the woolly herd
Complete with the whys and the wows! Read more

Published on January 28, 2004

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