Types of Bison in Massachusetts

Modern bison fall into two recognized subspecies: the American bison and the European bison, also called wisent. American bison once numbered in the tens of millions across the continent but were reduced to fewer than 1,000 animals by the 1880s. Today, approximately 500,000 American bison live in captive herds and a handful of wild refuges, primarily in the Northern Great Plains and Rocky Mountain regions. They are divided further into plains bison and wood bison based on habitat preference and slight size differences. European bison were hunted to extinction in the wild in the early 1900s but have been reintroduced to a few Eastern European forests. Neither wild species has any presence in Massachusetts.

Bison were slaughtered by European settlers on an industrial scale in the 1800s as a strategy to eliminate Indigenous peoples' primary food source and clear the Great Plains for cattle ranching and agriculture. Commercial hunters would kill hundreds of bison per day, leaving their hides to rot across the prairies. The eastern populations, which had always been limited in number compared to western herds, vanished first as colonists expanded inland. By 1850, wild bison could be found only west of the Mississippi River, and by 1890, they had nearly been erased everywhere.

Bison do not occur naturally in Massachusetts and are not found in wild parks or refuges within the state. However, a few New England zoos and private educational farms keep bison for public viewing and historical education. If you wish to observe bison in person, you would need to travel to western regions such as the National Bison Range in Montana, the Ted Turner Bison Reserve in South Dakota, or Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, where wild and semi-wild herds can be seen in their natural grassland habitat.

American plains bison are typically smaller and lighter than wood bison, weighing between 900 and 2,000 pounds depending on sex and individual variation. Male plains bison average around 1,500 pounds, while females are considerably smaller. Wood bison, which live in the boreal forests of Canada, are heavier and more muscular, with bulls reaching weights near 2,000 pounds. Both American bison subspecies are significantly larger than their closest living relatives, musk oxen and yaks. European wisent are similar in size to American wood bison, weighing 1,200 to 1,800 pounds.

Bison are unmistakable due to their massive shoulders, which are higher than their hindquarters, and their large distinctive hump. Their entire front half is covered in thick, dark brown hair that forms a heavy mane and beard, while their hindquarters are much less densely furred. Both male and female bison have horns that curve slightly inward, and their legs appear short relative to their enormous body mass. In winter, their coat becomes shaggy and can appear nearly black, while in summer they shed their undercoat and appear lighter brown. No other large wild mammal in North America has this distinctive silhouette.

Bison and domestic cattle can interbreed and produce fertile offspring called beefalo or cattalo. These hybrids were deliberately created in the early 1900s to produce an animal that retained some bison hardiness while being easier to manage than pure bison. Accidental hybridization has also occurred on ranches where bison herds have been kept near cattle. Beefalo herds exist commercially in small numbers, primarily in western states. Despite rare domestic livestock sightings in Massachusetts recorded on iNaturalist, there is no established beefalo population or bison presence in the state.

Before European contact, bison inhabited a vast region stretching from Alaska and northern Canada southward through the Great Plains, prairies of the central United States, and into Mexico. Fossil evidence and early explorer accounts suggest bison did not naturally extend east of the Ohio River or north through the Great Lakes region into what is now New England. Climate, competition with other grazers, and predation by Indigenous hunters kept bison populations concentrated on the grasslands and open prairies. Massachusetts and surrounding New England were always forested and unsuitable for the grazing herds that depended on open grasslands.

While some conservation groups have discussed restoring bison to select public lands in the Great Plains and Western states, there are no serious scientific or policy proposals to reintroduce bison to the Eastern United States. The habitat is fundamentally different than it was 500 years ago, forested rather than grassland, and the ecological role bison would play is unclear given current predator, prey, and human land-use patterns. Instead, conservation efforts focus on maintaining and expanding wild bison populations in western refuges and supporting Indigenous-led bison restoration programs in their ancestral Great Plains territories.

Massachusetts is home to white-tailed deer, which are abundant throughout the state and can be seen in almost any woodland area. Moose, which are North America's largest land mammals, have been steadily expanding their range southward from Canada and are now frequently sighted in western and central Massachusetts during fall and winter. Black bears have also returned to the state after being hunted to extinction and now inhabit forests in the western and central regions. These three species are all genuinely wild, native to the region, and can be observed by resident and visiting naturalists.