Are they Cattalo, Catalo, Hybrids or Beefalo? Cattlemen of the old west who struggled with cold and blizzards looked at the mighty monarchs of the Plains with admiration and considerable envy. “Wouldn’t it be great,” they said, “To raise beef animals with the hardiness and smarts of the buffalo, which could still produce the large beef cuts from the tenderloin and hips of fat beef cattle?” Surely that would be the best of both worlds! It sounded good. And amazingly simple. From the beginning many people have attempted to crossbreed the two species. Today crossbreeding—as beefalo—is again experiencing a resurgence in the health food market. During the bison population bottleneck, after the great slaughter of buffalo during the 1800s, the number of bison remaining alive in North America declined to as low as 800, according to David A. Dary in his (Ital) Buffalo Book, 1989. A handful of ranchers gathered remnants of the existing herds to save the species from extinction. Some thought it...

Buffalo stampedes terrified people travelling across the plains. Stampedes were often described by hunters, soldiers and early settlers on the plains and prairies. No one wanted to get caught in the midst of one without a way to escape—the stampede could be terrible in its consequences. It took only a small trigger at times to start a buffalo stampede. The yipping of a prairie dog, the cry of a wolf or coyote, a flash of lightening, or a clap of thunder could set it off. Sometimes it took just one buffalo snorting and starting to run on her own, for others to join in a chain reaction. In seconds a peaceful herd of grazing buffalo could become a charging mass that ran hard for 10 or 20 miles. Once running, the buffalo herd trampled everything in their path, including other buffalo too slow to keep ahead of the mass. They could not be turned. Or they would turn abruptly at some obstruction. In April 1846 George Andrew Gordon was out hunting with four friends on the plains of...

What sound does a bison make? Your answer may not come as quickly as "moo" for a cow or "baa" for a sheep. But . . . Buffalo sounds include anything from the high-pitched bleats of a calf looking for its mother to the deep, low rumblings of male bellows heard during mating season. Other common bison sounds consist of grunts, snorts, coughs and growls. Calves produce a variety of sounds such as high-pitched grunts and bleats. These vocalizations are commonly associated with searching for their mothers or playing with other calves. As calves grow older, they will not stay entirely close to their mothers. When they have traveled too far, the mom will utter a series of low-pitched grunts. The calf responds with higher-pitched tones. So next time you find yourself in a national park or wildlife refuge, tune in to listening for the classic sounds of bison! Your browser does not support the audio element. In honor of our National Mammal, enjoy this Yellowstone bison rut footage from the...