Social behavior of the American buffalo (Bison bison bison)

approximately up to about fourteen years.Cows were aged accurately up to three years.Plate I, Figures 1 &2, demonstrate the technique of aging by size and shape of horns more completely than any written description.Aging was most easily accomplished when the horns were viewed head-on and was more difficult in profile views.Complementing the horns as indicators of age were several other physical features of the buffalo.These included relative size, profile of the body and head, size of the hump and the amount of hair on the crown, forehead and forelegs.The size of the chin "bell" was a helpful indicator that was sometimes indefinite since some animals wore it off in grazing.