i think that not all animals we think are extinct actually went extinct. Perhaps a small number, let’s say 2 or 10 for example, survived in the wild and then reproduced. They were hidden because they knew they were going to die from bigger predators, so these animals’ instincts kick in to hide them. They adapted to living in hiding and therefore we can’t find them.

As for larger animals, same thing; they reproduce and were normally hidden in the past and now. That is untill one of them is wanders into the open and we see them.

Or he could have been referring to what was once known as Panhandle Pueblo culture (now more often termed “slab house people”) who ranged throughout the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles and perhaps even into Kansas and Nebraska.

What made them unique is they seemed to be a transitional culture, bridging the plains tribes with those of the Pueblos. They had characteristics of each and evidence located at several digs proves they did trade in pottery and pelts with other tribes further to the east and west.

Their architecture was very Puebloan in design. They built adobe roomblock structures that may have had granaries and circular kiva-like structures.

“Are there groups who seek out the evidence of any new bison?”

Yes, norman-uk, this is exactly what I am wondering about, as well.

The vast areas east of the Sierras, in Old Mexico, may be as close to a “lost world” as I think you may find on this North American continent. However, it is not renown as a “tourist friendly” area; it’s greatest strength (preservation) and it’s greatest danger (exploration). Even many of the features on most road maps of the bordering, southern part of New Mexico, in the USA, were only recently listed: the Peloncillo Mts, the Animas Mts, the Pyramid Mts … . My old, 1990 road map shows this as a blank.

What little I know about the bison, was informally gleaned (road trip, 2005) from various residents in the northern area of Hidalgo County, New Mexico, USA. The animals were said to have first been observed coming across the border in the 1980s by border ranchers. The people in the area described them as looking distinctly different from the more northern plains populations: less woolly, almost lacking the characteristic hump of their plains relatives, leaner, and much smaller (“miniature” or “half the weight of a plains bison”). From what I was told, this is supposed to more closely resemble the animals described by the early Spanish explorers near Mexico City, in the 1500s.

It is difficult to say whether this is a recent adaptation by a population that has been geography isolated in an extreme desert environment for generations, or an entirly different species that has been indigenous to a remote part of Mexico for eons.

I would really like to know.

Norman-uk- Perhaps my post answered some of your questions. As far as the geography of where the Janos-Hildago herd are found, it is dry, desert grassland and scrubland. Very dry conditions for bison, and this is the only herd found in such conditions, but there they are and they are doing quite well. It is apparent that they can adapt to live in that environment, and the bison was once in even more Southern locales.

This all leads me to think that the animal in question is perhaps just the known American bison. That or maybe a subspecies that has developed certain traits to adapt to the desert conditions.

There is precedent for the American bison in Mexico. Not only do archeological records show that the historic range of the American bison reached into Northern Mexico, there is also a herd of Bison that can be found in Mexico to this day. The Janos-Hidalgo herd, which is the southernmost known herd of bison, have been moving between Chihuahua, Mexico and New Mexico in the United States for decades. These are not a new species, but a herd of the known North American species, so bison are already known in Mexico. Perhaps these animals or another similar herd are what is being reported? Maybe there are undiscovered herds that are even more Southern as well? The fact that the Janos-Hildago herd have prospered in such a dry environment suggests to me that the bison is capable of adapting to those conditions.

I am not convinced we are looking at a totally new species here.

You can also find a nearly identical picture of the wisent in Conrad Gesner’s Historia Animalium.