Bull update

The bull (largest horns on the left) leisurely sitting in the grass. The rest of the herd is starting to move away, but he'll stay sitting until he is ready to move. 

As I believe I've mentioned in a previous post, bison have a minor mating season in early spring followed by a more intense season in late summer.  While humans should always be cautious around bison, they should be even more cautious during the mating seasons as bulls will respond to reason even less than normal.  I got my first taste of this in March of this year when I was charged on several occasions (see posts here and here).

The aggression the bull exhibited this past spring subsided about a month ago and he's now entered what I would term a "selfish mode."  Whereas before he would lavish his every attention on the females and valiantly defend them from every perceived threat, he now uses his large size and strength to be first in the line for anything desirable.  A good example of this behavior can be observed when the herd passes near a small patch of bare sandy soil.  Although bare sandy soil probably isn't very compelling for most humans (with the exception of beaches), in the mind of a bison laying down and rolling in bare dusty soil (called wallowing) is one of the more fulfilling things to do in life.  For this reason, whenever they are near a patch of sandy ground, they will usually take turns wallowing.  The bull, however, does not follow this tradition.  Rather than briefly wallowing and then moving so others can wallow too, he will lay down, wallow, and then go to sleep while the others look on.  After about twenty minutes or so our hero may wake up and decide to wallow some more, but he will not move for another bison.  Occasionally, one of the other bison may become impatient and jab him in the back with her horns, but he'll ignore her and only move when he is ready to move. 

While this new phase of behavior is probably annoying for the rest of the herd, it certainly is a relief for me as it allows me to work within the pasture area without constantly being run off.  This does not mean that he wouldn't hurt me if I got too close (I'll still never come closer than 200 yards unless I'm on the tractor), I simply no longer expect to be pursued whenever I'm spotted working in a distant part of the pasture.  I also need to keep in mind that this behavior is only temporary and I will soon find myself being ruthlessly pursued during the late summer mating period.