Tagged: buffalo

American Buffalo Traffic Jams: Bison of Yellowstone National Park [55 PICS]

February 28th, 2013 Permalink

Bison (American Buffalo) can weigh up to 2,000 lbs and can sprint or stampede at speeds around 30 – 40 mph. Bison can also jump 6 feet straight up in the air, over fences. They are wild animals in a domesticated setting at Yellowstone National Park, the only free-roaming herds of bison in the United States. There are about 4,000 American Buffalo at Yellowstone and despite the National Park Service warning visitors not to get too close, people get too tempted to capture that awesome photo and instead end up being gored. Yellowstone bison are also famous for ruling the roads, sometimes hip-checking, kicking or charging cars. With males being 2,000 pounds, there’s not much you can do other than wait them out if the bison are blocking the road. This is referred as the bison (or buffalo) traffic jam. Yellowstone National Park is the only place in the U.S. where bison have lived continuously since prehistoric times. Here’s a look at the bison of Yellowstone, buffalo traffic jams, and bison attacking cars and people. [55 Photos, 7 Videos]

Yellowstone bison and calf, 2000 pounds of anger when calf hesitated to cross road in traffic

2,000 pounds of anger. The photographer explained, “A bison with its calf. It is staring right at the camera and not too happy about it. She was a lot more upset when the calf hesitated to cross the road because of the traffic.” Yet that doesn’t stop most bison from crossing the road or taking their half out of the middle. They make the rules and buffalo traffic jams as you will see. Photo #1 by Krishna Santhanam

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Theodore Roosevelt National Park: Where Wildlife & Buffalo Still Roam

January 15th, 2012 Permalink

Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, the 26th U.S. President, fell in love with the North Dakota badlands during his first visit there in 1883 while he was hunting bison. Roosevelt believed the ‘Wild West’ had a rugged lifestyle and ‘perfect freedom.’ The establishment of Theodore Roosevelt National Park was to memorialize Roosevelt’s life, and the influence the landscape had on him and his conservation ethics. The 110 square miles park is divided into three sections packed with wildlife including bison, feral horses, elk, bighorn sheep, white-tailed deer and mule deer, prairie dogs, and 186 species of birds such as golden eagles, sharp-tailed grouse, and wild turkeys. The largest, South Unit, and the North Unit have about 100 miles of foot and horse trails, wildlife viewing, and opportunities for back country hiking and camping. The Elkhorn Ranch Unit which has Roosevelt’s Elkhorn Ranch is located in-between the two larger units. Besides wonderful wildlife, the National Park Service calls the bizarre geologic rock formations the “grim fairyland” of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Roosevelt said the badlands were “so fantastically broken in form and so bizarre in color as to seem hardly properly to belong to this earth.” Here’s a look at the wildlife at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, one of the few places where the buffalo still roam. [35 Photos]

Feral Horses in the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Feral Horses in the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. To give you an idea of the time period that Roosevelt fell in the love with the area, he told two favorite stories from the Dakota Territory: The Bar Fight and the adventure of Pursuing Boat Thieves. Photo #1 by Sarah Nystrom / NPS

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