How to Identify Bison in Georgia

An adult bison is larger than domestic cattle and has a completely different body shape. Bison typically weigh 900 to 2,000 pounds, with bulls at the higher end, while a large domestic cow tops out around 1,400 pounds. Bison have a massive shoulder hump, a high-domed head, and thick, muscular front quarters. Their legs are relatively short and sturdy. A bison stands 5 to 6 feet tall at the shoulder. Domestic cattle lack the shoulder hump and have more level spines. If you see a massive animal with a distinct hump in Georgia, it is almost certainly a captive bison on a private ranch or farm.

Most bison are dark brown to almost black, though some have reddish or lighter brown coats. Their entire body is covered in shaggy hair, especially thick on the head, neck, and shoulders. This dense coat gives them a woolly appearance compared to the smoother hair of cattle. Bison have long horns curved inward and upward, and males grow a characteristic beard. Their eyes are small, set on the sides of their head, and their sense of smell is excellent. The face is broad, with a hump of muscle and hair at the shoulder that slopes down the back. In winter, their coat is so thick it sheds rain and snow.

Bison and buffalo are not the same animal, though the names are often used interchangeably in North America. There are two types of bison: American bison (found wild in the Great Plains and in zoos or captive herds) and European bison, or wisent, (now found mainly in Eastern Europe). African and Asian buffalo are entirely different animals with different body shapes, horn patterns, and genetics. In the United States, when people say 'buffalo,' they usually mean American bison. True buffalo live in Africa and Asia and have never lived wild in Georgia or anywhere else in North America.

Bison have two-toed hooves, or cloven hooves, similar to cattle, deer, and sheep. A bison track is roughly circular or oval, measuring about 4 to 5 inches wide. The two hoof prints sit side by side and sometimes overlap, creating a shape wider than it is long. Bison tracks are deeper and more prominent than deer tracks and much larger than sheep or goat tracks. In soft ground or mud, you can see the impression of the dewclaws (the small toes higher on the leg) behind the main hooves. If you spot massive round tracks the size of a dinner plate in Georgia, they likely belong to a domestic horse, not a bison.

Bison travel in herds and move with a loping gait that covers ground quickly. Despite their massive size, they are surprisingly agile and can run up to 35 miles per hour. In open pastures, a herd of bison will often move together in a loose group, grazing as they go. A dominant bull leads the herd, and cows with calves stay close together. Bison are gregarious and rarely solitary. In a confined space like a ranch or zoo, bison may pace along fences or gather in corners. They produce vocalizations including grunts and bellows, particularly during the breeding season in late summer.

Bison are herbivores with molars designed for grinding tough prairie grasses. Their teeth are large and efficient at processing fibrous vegetation. Like all large herbivores, bison have no upper front teeth (incisors), only a hard pad. The lower jaw has incisors that graze or tear grass against this pad. Their jaw is deep and powerful. Adult bison continue growing teeth throughout much of their life, and tooth wear is a way biologists estimate age. If you ever examine a bison skeleton (more likely in a museum than in Georgia), the teeth are enormous compared to domestic cattle teeth.

Bison evolved to live in open grasslands, prairie, and short-grass plains across North America. They need expansive open areas to graze and move freely. Georgia's landscape is dominated by forests, swamps, coastal plains, and rolling hills with mixed vegetation. There is no continuous grassland ecosystem in Georgia comparable to the Great Plains or the prairies of the Midwest. The state's weather is also problematic: humid summers and variable winters do not match the dry continental climate bison evolved to handle. Bison require vast territories to forage. Reestablishing a wild population in Georgia would require not just a few animals, but hundreds or thousands, occupying an area that simply does not exist in the Southeast.

Wild and semi-wild bison populations live in the Great Plains states, primarily in Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota. The largest herds are protected in national bison ranges and national parks. Yellowstone National Park has a well-known bison herd, as does the National Bison Range in Montana. Several Native American tribes manage their own bison herds on reservation lands. Smaller populations exist in conservation areas and on private ranches throughout the West, but wild bison are absent from the Southeast, East, and anywhere east of the Great Plains. If you want to see wild or semi-wild bison, you must travel west.