What Is the State Animal of Wyoming?
The bison was chosen, as the state animal in Wyoming, in a contest. It was a shoo-in since the large animal was already featured on the state flag. The bison, also known as the American buffalo, roams freely in Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park, one of the very few areas in the United States where it thrives outside of captivity.
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History
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Wyoming adopted the bison as its state animal on Feb. 23, 1985. At the time, Yellowstone National Park had the last living pack of bison in the United States. In a campaign to determine the state animal, students in the state voted, choosing the large mammal over the pronghorn antelope. The Wyoming flag already had the bison on it in a white silhouette since 1917. The bison is also the state animal of Kansas and Oklahoma.
Traits
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Full grown bison can weigh between 800 to 2,000 pounds. Some stand over six feet tall. Bison have dark brown, shaggy hair, which thins out in the summer time. The head on a bison is large and features a pair of horns--on both sexes. Bison are herbivores, and have a life expectancy of 15 years in the wild and 25 in captivity.
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Misconception
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Bison are often called American buffalo because they belong to the Bovidae family. True buffalo, however, live only in Asia or Africa.
Existence
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Wild bison can be found roaming inside Yellowstone National Park, among other parks in the United States and Canada. A report by the American Bison Society notes that since 1968, "natural regulation" has been tied to the bison's existence in the park. Any bison that leave the park are killed. In 2000, there were a reported 2,800 to 3,200 bison in Yellowstone. As of 1998, there were more than 500,000 bison in North America. Many of those bison, however, were in captivity.
State Symbols
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Wyoming's state bird is the western meadowlark, its state fish is a cutthroat trout and the state reptile is the horned toad. Wyoming also has a state dinosaur, the triceratops.
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References
- Photo Credit bison image by Ronnie Howard from Fotolia.com
