Everyone is always excited to see buffalo when they first arrive in Yellowstone. It’s usually the first animal seen.
However, people don’t see buffalo – they see bison.
The bison population fluctuates from 2300 to 4500 animals and 9 out of 100 bison die each winter. They are usually old and/or sick. Both grizzly bears and wolves will prey on bison.
Yellowstone is the only place in the United States where bison have lived continuously since prehistoric times. A number of Native American tribes especially revere Yellowstone’s bison as pure descendants of the vast herds that once roamed the grasslands of the United States. The largest bison population in the country on public land resides in Yellowstone. It is one of the few herds free of cattle genes.
The bison is the largest land mammal in North America. Males (bulls) weigh up to 2,000 pounds, females (cows) weigh up to 1,000 pounds. Reddish-brown calves are born in late April and May, after a gestation period of 9 to 9½ months. Calves can keep up with the herd 2 to 3 hours after birth and they are well protected by their mothers and other members of the herd. However, wolves and grizzly bears can kill bison calves.
And you can run into bison in the strangest places as you’ll see from this video.
1 comment:
There are Bison herds in Michigan too. Odd animals HUGE!
Curious how they just walk down the road in the correct direction with traffic.
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