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Description: |
xvi, 229 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm |
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Bibliography Note: |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-221). |
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Contents Note: |
Contents: Relationships, relationships : Bull to bull and cow to bull -- Cow to cow -- Cow to calf -- The machinery of a bison’s life : Bison athletics -- Digestion: grass to gas and chips -- Temperature control -- Whence they came forth, and how much they multiplied : Ancestors and relatives --How many? the bison population in primitive America -- The bison’s neighborhood : The central grassland: where buffalo roam when they’re at home -- The bison’s neighbors : Wolves and bison: myths and realities -- Buffalo birds -- Diseases and parasites -- Pronghorn -- Prairie dogs -- Badgers -- Coyotes -- Grizzlies -- Ferrets -- Human and buffalo : Close encounters of the buffalo kind -- To kill a bison -- Bison numbers before the great slaughter -- Where have all the bison gone? -- Attitudes -- Conservation: then and now -- A great plains park. |
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Summary, Etc. Note: |
Summary: American bison takes us on a journey into the bison's past and shares a compelling vision for its future, offering along the way a valuable introduction to North American prairie ecology. Lott explores the social life and physiology of the bison, sharing stories about its impressive physical prowess and fascinating relationships. Describing the entire grassland community in which the bison live, he writes about the wolves, pronghorn, prairie dogs, grizzly bears, and other animals and plants, detailing the interdependent relationships among these inhabitants of a lost landscape. Lott also traces the long and dramatic relationship between the bison and Native Americans, and gives a surprising look at the history of the hide hunts that delivered the coup de grace to the already dwindling bison population in a few short years. Lott also dismantles many of the myths we have created about these ways of life, and about the bison in particular, to reveal the animal itself: ruminating, reproducing, and rutting in its full glory. His portrait of the bison ultimately becomes a plea to conserve its wildness and an eloquent meditation on the importance of the wild in our lives. |
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Elect. Loc./Access: |
Table of contents http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy032/2002000243.html |
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Contributor biographical information http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/bios/ucal052/2002000243.html |
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Series Added Entry: |
Organisms and environments ; 6. |