Yellowstone Observations

When I visited Yellowstone a couple of weeks ago the bison were moving from their winter locations into the favored summer pastures. As usual they were using the paved roads for their own runways. I was stopped or slowed down several times by various groups, mostly moving along the Madison River. One time as I was sitting in the car waiting for a medium sized herd to pass there were a couple of stragglers at the end. I noticed that the one at the back started to overtake and pass the other one, then looking back and noticing the other one wasn't keeping up, this bison fell back behind again. I thought it was curious, but thought it might be a dominance thing taking place. These two then passed the car right next to me, just a few inches away, so I thought I should take the chance to observe their appearance as carefully as I could. As the first one went by I noticed that his horns were very blunted, and had a splintery appearance to them. I wondered if it was possible that this was the way all their horns were and I had just never really paid attention before, so I waited eagerly for the second bison to see what his horns looked like. They were pointed and smooth! I then realized that I had seen a wonderful little vignette story about bison behavior in particular and all of the animal kingdom in general. The young strong bull had been watching out for and tending over the aged grandfather bull! It was a very sweet feeling to have witnessed such a lovely scene and to have understood it.

Later I turned at Norris, towards Canyon, and a little ways along saw two female bison shepherding a little new calf down the road, one in front of the calf and one behind him. You could tell he was very young, because he had the expression of just working at doing what he needed to do, not the more aware expression of an older calf. This also was a very sweet and cherished memory for me.

Today I visited the park again. The Madison is flooding now, with all of the heavy snowmelt, and I only saw elk along the river. The bison were in herds to be seen in various places along the Firehole, but all of the side roads are closed to allow the grumpy, hungry bears some peace and quiet while they wake up and fill their tummies. When I asked at Old Faithful when the roads would open the ranger told me Memorial Day for most of them, but the path to Lone Star geyser would open as soon as the bears finished eating the dead bison on the path. Usually it took 3 or 4 days for them to do this, but they were taking a long time this time.

So I have contrasting stories about the life and death of bison in Yellowstone. I saw the beginnings of life, respect for old age, and the endings of life in this existence.