American Bison: A natural history by Dale F. Lott, University of California Press, $29.95/£19.95, ISBN 0520233387 Reviewed by Jonathan Beard
WHEN Europeans invaded North America, some 30 million buffalo roamed its Great Plains from Canada to Texas, dominating this vast sea of grass. The settlers did their best to convert the beasts into food, robes and fertiliser, and turn their grass into corn fields. Despite this, the bison remains the continental totem.
Dale Lott was born on the National Bison Range in western Montana where his father worked for Dale’s future father-in-law, the range superintendent. Lott went on to…
