＃215【English】Morning Talk Bison

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Good morning everyone, it's December 11th and it's Friday! It's also time for Amber's Morning English Talk. 

It's currently partly cloudy and about seven degrees Celsius, with a high of fourteen degrees in the afternoon. It should also become more cloudy throughout the day, so please enjoy the sun when you can this morning. 

Last night Hiro and I did a live broadcast about state mammals, and I wrapped up the talk with a question towards the end. That question was "What is America's National Mammal?" And I wanted to go over the answer today! 

I'm sure many of you can tell from the title of this talk, the answer is the bison! Also known as the American buffalo or American bison. The United states only recently designated the Bison as the national mammal in 2016. The American bison has been used on flags, seals, and coins across the United States, and also Canada. Kansas and North Dakota both feature bison on their state quarter design. Wyoming uses a bison as a part of their state flag. 

Bison were historically hunted until near extinction, and by the 1880's there were less than 1,000 American bison left. The bison is considered ecologically extinct, meaning that while the animal itself still exists, it does not roam freely as it once did. There are many conservation efforts to help bring back a sort of natural population of Bison in the United States and Canada. 

If you ever get a chance to visit the U.S. It may be worth it to visit a national park that has a population of Bison, as they are very beautiful animals. Yellowstone National Park is probably the most well-known park with the bison living in them.

So I'd like to end today's morning talk with a question: "Do you know Japan's national animal?"