Bison live mainly in the grasslands, prairies, and open woodlands of North America and parts of Europe today, with wild herds now restricted to much smaller areas than in the past.

Quick Scoop: Where do bison live?

  • Historically, American bison roamed from Alaska down to northern Mexico across the Great Plains and other open habitats.
  • Today, most free-ranging American bison live in protected or managed areas in western Canada and the United States, such as Yellowstone National Park.
  • European bison live in forests and mixed woodlands across several European countries after successful reintroduction programs.

Main regions today

  1. North America (American bison)
    • Canada: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Ontario, Saskatchewan.
 * United States: herds in states like Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Arizona, California, Alaska, and a few others, often in parks or reserves.

 * Yellowstone National Park is the only place in the U.S. where bison have lived continuously since prehistoric times.
  1. Europe (European bison, or wisent)
    • Reintroduced herds in countries including Poland, Belarus, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Ukraine.

What habitats do they like?

  • Open or semi-open grasslands, prairies, and sagebrush steppe.
  • River valleys, plains, and gently rolling or hilly terrain where grazing is good.
  • Some herds also use light woodlands and forest edges, especially European bison.

Tiny bit of “latest news” flavor

In recent years, conservation projects in both North America and Europe have focused on restoring bison to more of their former range, often by creating or expanding conservation herds and rewilding projects. These efforts aim to bring back the ecological role of bison in grassland and woodland ecosystems while keeping their numbers stable or growing.

Bison once dominated huge swaths of the Northern Hemisphere’s grasslands; now, they mostly survive in carefully managed islands of habitat, with slow but hopeful expansion through conservation.

TL;DR: Bison used to live almost everywhere across the North American grasslands and, for European bison, across much of Europe, but now they mainly survive in scattered protected areas in western North America and reintroduction sites in Europe.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.