Do loud noises 'spook' bison?
Summer thunderstorms, which occur frequently during the hottest weather. One question that I've been asked about bison has been if loud noises 'spook' them with the implication being that they might stampede. I have not had enough experience with enough bison to definitively answer this question. Consequently, the most I can do is relate what I have witnessed thus far. In our remote part of southern Virginia the pristine rural silence is usually only shattered by one of five things: thunder, military aircraft, artillery, my tractor, and guns. As indicated by the above photograph, lightning and thunder are not uncommon on our ranch during the summer. They do not, however, appear to influence the bison. Even when a deafening bolt of lightning struck the trees within 50 yards (which nearly made me wet my pants), the bison didn't care. An F 15 Eagle engaged in low level flight training. Our ranch lies squarely in the center of both a military operations