Bison Emoji

A bison, the massive, shaggy, hump-shouldered bovine of the Great Plains. Usually shown in left-facing profile with its trademark dark mane and curved black horns. Emojipedia notes it was approved in Unicode 13.0 (2020) as U+1F9ACU+1F9AC, alongside 🦫 beaver, 🦣 mammoth, and 🦤 dodo.

In texting, 🦬 carries three main associations. The first is the American bison as a national symbol. Congress designated it the national mammal of the United States in May 2016 via the National Bison Legacy Act. The second is Buffalo, New York, where the emoji functions as the city's unofficial flag. When the emoji finally arrived, the Buffalo Bills celebrated on Twitter. The third is sacred Native American meaning, especially among Plains tribes like the Lakota, who call the bison tatanka.

Most people casually conflate "bison" and "buffalo." Scientifically, true buffalo (🐃 water buffalo, African buffalo) are separate species native to Asia and Africa. The North American animal is a bison. But in common American English and especially in Native American usage, "buffalo" has been the preferred name for centuries and is not going anywhere.

🦬 lives hardest in three places: Yellowstone content, Buffalo Bills content, and conservation content. Travel influencers posting from Yellowstone or Grand Teton will always pair it with a bison photo. Buffalo Bills fans use it on game days as a substitute for the team logo in tweets and captions.

Before 2020, Buffalo locals complained loudly about the lack of a proper bison emoji. Aaron Zimmerman's Apple Support thread became semi-famous as proof the city needed its own symbol. When Unicode 13.0 rolled out, Buffalo News covered the emoji arrival as local news. Western New York is probably the most per-capita intensive user of 🦬 in the country.

On Indigenous and conservation Twitter, 🦬 is used with real reverence. Buffalo rewilding stories, InterTribal Buffalo Council updates, and reintroduction projects all lean on the emoji. It's one of the rare cases where the casual meme use (Bills touchdown celebrations) and the reverent use (tribal sovereignty, land return) coexist on the same emoji without clashing.

The bison emoji was proposed to Unicode in August 2019 via proposal L2/19-187, submitted by Alex Schmidt. The proposal framed bison as "a key cultural touchstone of North American life" and leaned on three pillars: its status as America's national mammal, its sacred significance in Plains Indigenous cultures, and its conservation-success-story arc.

That conservation story is extraordinary. By the late 1800s, US troops and market hunters had killed tens of millions of bison, partly as a deliberate strategy to destroy the food base of Plains Indigenous nations. The species dropped from an estimated 30-60 million animals to fewer than 1,000. Yellowstone's rescue operation in 1902 purchased 21 bison from private owners and bred them at the Lamar Buffalo Ranch. That herd is now around 5,000 strong.

Unicode approved 🦬 in March 2020 as part of Emoji 13.0. It rolled out on iPhones with iOS 14.2 in November 2020. Western New York erupted, briefly.

1. 2019Bison emoji proposal L2/19-187 submitted by Alex Schmidt↗
2. 2020Approved in Unicode 13.0 / Emoji 13.0. Ships on iOS 14.2 in November
3. 2021Buffalo, NY adopts 🦬 as unofficial civic emoji during Bills playoff run
4. 2024Yellowstone issues updated Interagency Bison Management Plan to protect the 5,500-animal herd↗

• •American bison can weigh up to 2,000 pounds (males) and 1,000 pounds (females), making them the largest land mammals in North America. The record is over 3,800 pounds.
• •Bison can run at 35-45 mph, jump 6 feet vertically, and pivot quickly despite their size. They can also swim. Don't assume they're slow because they look heavy.
• •In 1902, Yellowstone purchased just 21 bison from private owners to save the species from extinction. That founding herd is now roughly 5,500 animals and is the only continuously wild bison population in the US.
• •The US national mammal designation in May 2016 came after four years of lobbying by a coalition including the InterTribal Buffalo Council and the Wildlife Conservation Society.
• •The Buffalo nickel, designed by James Earle Fraser, featured a bison on the reverse side from 1913 to 1938. It's considered one of the most beautiful American coins ever minted.
• •The bison's shoulder hump houses massive muscles that power the head, letting the animal plow through deep snow to find grass in winter. That's why they've historically thrived in places where cattle can't.
• •Estimated pre-Columbian bison populations ranged from 30 to 60 million animals. By 1890, fewer than 1,000 remained. The recovery to today's 500,000+ is one of the most dramatic conservation comebacks on record.
• •The Lakota word for bison is tatanka. The Lakota also use "pte," and call themselves pte oyate ("buffalo nation"). Their origin story places bison and humans emerging together from Wind Cave in the Black Hills.
• •A newborn bison calf is called a "red dog" because of its bright orange-red coat. The color darkens to adult brown within a few months.

• •The Buffalo nickel (1913-1938) pictured a bison on the reverse, modeled on "Black Diamond," a bison at the Central Park Zoo. It's one of the most collected US coins.
• •Dances with Wolves (1990), Kevin Costner's Best Picture winner, featured a famous bison hunt scene that took weeks to film using a mix of real bison and early CGI. It's still cited as one of the most authentic depictions of Plains life on film.
• •The InterTribal Buffalo Council, founded in 1991, represents over 80 tribes actively restoring bison herds on reservations across North America. Their work reframes bison rewilding as Indigenous sovereignty, not just conservation.
• •The Buffalo Bills NFL team's fanbase, "Bills Mafia," adopted 🦬 the day it was released. It's the closest thing to an officially unofficial team emoji in sports.
• •Yellowstone (TV series)) (2018-2024) features bison imagery throughout. Its prequel 1883 centered heavily on Plains Indigenous-bison relationships and the great slaughter.