Experimental study of bovine cancellous bone up to compaction under uniaxial compression and up to fracture under tension, has been pursued in this article. Compression experiments have revealed the known three stages of the constitutive response, namely the initial increasing and softening branches at moderate strains, the plateau region at large strains and the hardening part at very large strains under compaction. Tension tests have quantified the increasing and softening branches of the stress–strain curve up to fracture. Subsequently, a constitutive mechanical model, for the simulation of the experimental findings up to very large strains (75% engineering strain under compression), is proposed. The model is based on the statistical description of (a) the failure process of the trabecular structure at small and moderate strains and (b) the compaction process of the trabecular mass at very large strains under compression. Several fitting cases indicated that the presented constitutive law can capture the evolution of the experimental results.