Meeting Yellowstone Bison

 

After nearly 10 years getting to know the bison on my ranch on a very personal level I recently had the opportunity to come near a bison herd living in Yellowstone National Park and found the parallels in their behavior remarkable.  Over the years I have learned how to "read" the bison on my ranch to the point where I usually know exactly what each of them is thinking and what they are likely to do next.  For example, I can tell when a bull is courting a female and wants me to go away or when a mother wants her calf to stop trying to nurse.  I can tell when they are anxious or playful by looking at an individual bison or just the entire herd from a distance. 

 

The bison I encountered at Yellowstone were getting ready to cross a road, so I parked the car to watched them pass.  As they approached, other cars came by and some of them stopped to watch, while others drove by in an annoyed rush.  The entire herd walked right by the car and I really enjoyed seeing them.  The herd was what I would describe as a normal herd consisting of mostly mothers with their calves, young bison, and one larger bull courting a cow (this surprised me as it's rather late in the season).  I was truly amazed at how much these bison behaved like the bison on my ranch.  For example, I've always noticed how young bulls (whom I refer to as "mamma's boys") tend to be fairly meek until around the age of three or four years old when they become bolder and start thinking about leaving the herd to join the loose confederation of crotchety old bulls that hang together in small groups away from the females.  The same was true with this herd.  The young bulls held their tails a little higher (in alarm) than the older ones as they passed the car, just as they would back home.  The calves too seemed to be at the stage in late fall when their mothers decide its time for them to start eating more grass and drinking less milk.  This decision often results in the calf following for several days behind the mother grunting until giving up. All in all it was a real treat to see this herd.  

I will add one more observation and a warning to any readers planning to go see bison at Yellowstone or anywhere else.  Something I noticed in almost all of the bison I saw in Yellowstone was a sense of elevated alarm/annoyance whenever vehicles drove up to them or people got out of their cars to take pictures.  It was the kind of elevated alarm that would cause me to slowly back away if I encountered it on my ranch.  And this leads me to my public service announcement.  Bison are freak'n dangerous and can kill you in a heartbeat!  Unless a bison was raised by humans from birth, it will generally regard people with a certain level of suspicion.  I've known bison who are mildly cautious and bison who are absolutely convinced every person is out to get them.  The average bison would regard a rapidly approaching person as a serious threat.  If you are in a vehicle around bison, please do not get out of the vehicle.  If you are hiking somewhere and see bison up ahead, do not just keep walking forward expecting them to understand you are just walking on a trail.  This will likely result in you scaring them and them defending themselves at your expense.  Never approach a bison from a higher elevation and never try walking uphill to go around a bison.  To a bison this means you are about to attack it.  Basically, bison want to feel safe and they feel safe when they don't think you are trying to attack them.  The best way to do this is not to walk up to them and give them plenty of space (100s of yards) to walk by.  Also, don't try to sneak by them.  If you try to be sneaky and tiptoe around them and they discover this (which they will because they have better senses than you can imagine) they will assume you are trying to ambush them. Don't let your desire to get that perfect picture or selfie end in a visit to the hospital. Respect bison and they will respect you.