Our older herd bull (right) eating hay with No. 29 (left) and No. 28 (standing behind 29).
No. 29, one of our younger bulls, exhibited some interesting behavior the other day, which I though was worth mentioning. The following videos (greatly enlarged and cropped from the originals) were captured with a body camera I was wearing while walking past the bison herd. Usually, when I walk near the bison, they quickly recognize me and either ignore me or slowly walk over to see what I'm doing. In this instance I surprised them by approaching from a direction I normally wouldn't approach from and, for at least a short time, they didn't seem sure about who I was. When they are unsure if the human they've spotted is me, it's not unusual for them to act alarmed, but, as you will see, No. 29's behavior took things to a new level.
In the first video (above) you will see several female bison and calves on the right being chased by No. 29. Then, at around 0:08 in the video the chase moves across to the left side of the screen and, at 0:15, No. 29 stops and faces our older and larger herd bull who enters on the left a few seconds later. Just as the older bull becomes visible in the video, No. 29 now turns and dashes at a fast run after the main body of the herd to continue his chasing.
In the next video (above) we see No. 29 now energetically sparring with the older bull on the left while the rest of the herd stands around. The older and larger bull appears to be caught off-guard and stumbles some at first (a calf walking by in the foreground obscures the fight for a few seconds). Then, at about 0:13 in the video, No. 29 abruptly turns and hops off towards the rest of the herd and begins chasing the females again. The females circle about while the older bull appears to try to interdict No. 29.
Eventually, after I walked by, No. 29 and the rest of the herd settled down, but I'm still not sure what No. 29 was trying to do. My only guess is that No. 29 saw me (as an unidentified human) as a far greater threat to the herd than the other bison did and was trying, and failing, to get them to move away to a safer location.
A much smaller No. 29 (left) in January of 2016 with our older bull (front right).
At only two and a half years old No. 29 still has some growing to do before he'll be able to make a stand in a real fight with the older bull, but I've already noticed a more defiant attitude towards me. Rather than withdrawing with the rest of the females when I walk or drive by, No. 29 will more often than not stand his ground and sometimes do so with his tail partially raised in warning. He's also very attentive to the females whenever the older bull isn't. No. 29 has now joined the ranks of bison I watch very closely whenever I'm working in the pasture.
