The American bison, also called the American buffalo or simply buffalo, is a species of bison native to North America. It is one of two extant species of bison, alongside the European bison. Its historical range circa 9000 BC is described as the great bison belt, a tract of rich grassland from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico, east to the Atlantic Seaboard, as far north as New York, south to Georgia, and according to some sources, further south to northern Florida, with sightings in North Carolina near Buffalo Ford on the Catawba River as late as 1750.

A bison is a large bovine in the genus Bison within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised.