Bison facts

Raising bison for meat has become an alternative to raising beef, or an addition to beef operations for ranchers. Dave Carter, executive director of the National Bison Association gives some fascinating facts about these legendary animals. “Bison, they’re a cold weather animal.

There really isn't much that Mother Nature is going to throw at bison that they haven't seen for the last five thousand years. And so there's just a number of things. Number one, the fur that they have got on and the only animal in North America that's got more insulation in its fur is the polar bear. And so after a snow, if you look out on a herd of bison, you'll see that snow on top of them, just not even melting and getting down to the skin. Their insulation just doesn't radiate, you know, eating heat from their body to melt the snow and get down there to make it wet. Instinctually, they will turn into the wind. Domesticated livestock. If the wind starts blowing, they'll let the wind push them along, which is usually going to take them into a snowdrift or a ditch along the way. The bison will instinctively turn into the wind and walk up wind, which if you think about it, that's probably where the bear grabs going to be. And then that hope that the bison has is essentially a massive muscle whose main job is to hold up the head so they can take their head and go down through the snow and get down to the grass, grow and live off of that. And then finally, their metabolism drops way down or so they're just simply not burning as much energy during the wintertime.