A range of colors and patterns is even evident in the earliest human records of bison. Between seventeen thousand and thirty thousand years ago, incredible images of bison and other animals were painted or etched onto the walls of European caves, particularly in what is now southern France. The Ice Age bison documented on these cave walls have a coloration similar to that of bison today: dark heads, legs, and underbellies and a lighter-colored hump. The ancient artists depicted the animals in shades of brown, black, and ocher. Modern archaeologists and art historians do not know how accurately the artists mixed their paints to reflect the true colors of their models, but these colors certainly fall within the range of modern bison. Pattern variations shown in the cave paintings include mostly black bison with small tan areas on the flanks or bison with large light areas and black fringe on the legs, belly, and head. To date, no images of white bison have been found in prehistoric caves.
These Paleolithic paintings show the ancestors of the bison that inhabited the northern regions of Europe and eventually migrated over the Bering Strait land bridge to the New World. A well-preserved specimen of one of these ancestors, Bison priscus, was discovered in Alaska, its frozen remains mummified over time. This male bison, named "Blue Babe" because of the bluish mineral crystals that formed on the body, had been attacked and killed by lions, and the upper portion of his body had been eaten by the predatory cats. The kill probably took place late in the season, the winter snow covered it, and Blue Babe remained there for some thirty-six thousand years. What was remarkable about this specimen was that much of the soft tissue, including muscles, organs, and skin, remained intact. From the hair left on the body, it was possible to reconstruct what Blue Babe looked like. He was dark brown with black points and reddish highlights. Not surprisingly, he resembled the bison depicted on cave walls.
Sadly, no paintings of bison like Blue Babe have been found farther south in the Americas. A few pictographs have been found on canyon walls in the Southwest, but they are rare. Of note, however, is a small painted image in Big Bend National Park in southern Texas (Color Plate 4). It is the most southern image of a prehistoric bison known, although actual bison bones have been found as far south as the state of Chihuahua in Mexico. Another fine image of a bison bull was discovered on a smoking pipe that dates back to about A.D. 1000. The pipe was found in the Chicago area but has since been lost, which is truly unfortunate. We could use more evidence regarding the color of ancient bison in the Americas.
Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca was the first European to report seeing bison, and he described them as "tawny, some are black." Since that first sixteenth-century account, there have been other descriptions of the color of buffalo, ranging from blue to spotted and from gray to white to pale cream. Exotically colored hides, particularly white ones, commanded higher prices than the more common colors. William T. Hornaday, a zoologist from the New York Zoological Society, studied the buffalo extensively and reported in 1887 that dark brown and light brown were common colors, but that black, gray, and white were also evident.
Early evidence of white buffalo was also recorded by explorers and traders. The first known reference to the white bison was made in 1754 by Antony Henday, a trader with the Blackfoot tribe. He wrote in his journal of seeing a white buffalo hide in an Indian village along the Battle River in Canada. In 1800, explorer Alexander Henry recounted that the Cree had seen a pure-white calf in the midst of a large herd. Edwin James, who recorded Major Stephen Long's expedition to the Rockies in 1819, wrote of seeing pied bison.
Western artist George Catlin estimated that white buffalo were likely "one in a hundred thousand." J. A. Allen, who studied the animals and wrote the most comprehensive nineteenth-century study of bison, estimated that the white buffalo "probably occur in the proportion of not more than one in millions." Using the forty-million figure as the number of buffalo on the plains, Allen's estimate would mean there were only forty white buffalo at any given time. Catlin's estimate would mean there were four hundred. The killing of a white buffalo was considered a newsworthy event, and the Rocky Mountain News reported one in Colorado in 1873. After encountering what he thought was a white buffalo, a Colonel Jones of Texas described: "This was the most remarkable phenomenon I had ever witnessed, and for a moment I did not know whether I was awake or dreaming. I had read of the superstition of the Indian in relation to the white buffalo and considered it a phantoma phantasm of the red man's brain; now I could scarcely believe my own eyes. There the strange animal stood under the noonday sun, chewing its cuda white buffalo as sure as the world." There is really no way of knowing just how uncommon the white buffalo was or of establishing its statistical likelihood. Suffice it to say that the white buffalo was considered rare even when the great herds still roamed the plains.
Sacrificed by Indians for their powerful spirituality and prized by hunters for the high prices they could command, white hides were a sought-after commodity. White buffalo were shot and killed whenever they were encountered, and their color made them easy targets. This constant pressure kept their numbers low. Hornaday went so far as to say that white buffalo never reached adulthood. Because they were usually killed as calves, it can be assumed that few, if any, reached breeding age.
But what, exactly, is the biological significance of the white bison? For that matter, why should we care about bison fur color at all? The answer lies in the fact that fur color is more than an aesthetic aspect of bison biology; it offers important clues to genetic variation within the species and the animals' adaptability to their environment. For any species, a good degree of genetic variation is necessary to maintain a healthy population. Hair color is an easy form of variation to observe and thereby gauge the genetic diversity of the bison population.
Under natural conditions, hair color may affect an animal's survival. For example, among predator species, such as lions and cheetahs, blending into their environment helps them surprise prey from close range. For predators, surprise often leads to a successful hunt and subsequent survival. For prey species, such as bison, antelope, and other grass eaters, a delicate balance must be maintained. Individuals must look alike to predators but different to each other. Individuality in size, hair color, or horn configuration may confer an advantage in attracting mates or intimidating competitors. However, an animal that stands out from the rest of the herd makes an easy target for predators, and it may not be well received by the herd itself. Although a white buffalo indicates that genetic diversity exists within the species, being white does not seem to be particularly advantageous for the individual.
How then does a buffalo get to be white? There are three explanations. The first is that some of the white buffalo encountered on the plains were probably albinos. Albinism occurs in many animal species birds, reptiles, mammals (including humans) (Color Plates 9 and 10). It is a recessive color gene that causes the animal to have no pigmentation. Albinos have white fur, feathers, or skin, and their nose and eyes are usually pink. An albino buffalo calf might also have light-colored hooves and horns. Because of the lack of pigmentation in their eyes, albinos usually have poor vision; blindness is common. Their poor eyesight and conspicuous color combine to make these animals easy targets for predators, whether they be wolves, coyotes, or humans. Without doubt, some of the white bison killed on the plains were probably albinos.