American Bison (Bison bison)
Number 0032
Happy independence day! Here is a symbol of America, the American bison. I drive past a small herd of them every day on my way home from work. Sometime I want to try to draw one when it’s shedding its winter coat, when just the shoulders are padded with the thick, matted fur.
The New York Times had an article a few months ago about how most of the bison herds in the US are diluted with the DNA of cattle. There are two federal herds that are pure bison, one state herd in Utah, and then there’s Ted Turner’s herd on his Vermejo Park ranch in New Mexico, where you can hunt them.