Where the Buffalo Roam

Yellowstone park is famous for its buffalo (bison) herd, as you may know, and for good reason!

They are pretty incredible animals and I am always excited to see them whenever I visit the park. In fact, they are typically the first species of wildlife that I have the pleasure of seeing because there are usually so many of them.

Scenes like this are very common:

Unfortunately, the buffalo herd in the park this year is nearly half of what it was last year, due to a very bad winter and sadly, due also to a record number of legal cullings.

If you aren't familiar with the situation with the government sanctioned cullings due to the threat of brucellosis, here is an excerpt and a link to a recent article from CNN.com about the situation:

More than 700 of the iconic animals starved or otherwise died on the mountainsides during an unusually harsh winter, and more than 1,600 were shot by hunters or sent to slaughterhouses in a disease-control effort, according to National Park Service figures.

As a result, the park estimates its bison herd has dropped from 4,700 in November to about 2,300 today, prompting the government to halt the culling program early.

Government officials say the slaughter prevents the spread of the disease brucellosis from the Yellowstone bison to cattle on land near the park. Brucellosis can cause miscarriages, infertility and reduced milk production in domestic cattle.

Fortunately, the ones that did survive appeared to be very healthy, and there were many babies in the various herds that we saw:

Something that never ceases to amaze me, every time I visit Yellowstone, is the complete ignorance many of the tourists show toward these animals, despite the best efforts of the park rangers to give adequate warning as to how dangerous they are.

Buffalo are extremely dangerous, despite their seemingly docile nature. In fact, according to Wikipedia, they have been responsible for many more deaths than most people probably realize:

Between 1978 and 1992, over four times as many people in Yellowstone National Park were killed or injured by bison as by bears (12 by bears, 56 by bison). Bison also have the unexpected ability, given the animal's size and body structure, to leap over a standard barbed-wire fence.

Each time I go, I see people who are putting themselves in harm's way in one way or another, whether it is to get a better picture of a buffalo or just to get close enough to one to touch it.

One year, we watched in absolute horror as a man put what appeared to be a 4 or 5 year old girl up on the back of one and snapped a picture of her!! Luckily a park ranger also witnessed this and stepped in to deal with the situation.

I am always impressed by the quiet majesty of these magnificent creatures, and I felt very lucky to have gotten some really nice photos of this one in particular:

Chelle B.

Highlights from Yellowstone Park

Last week, we spent 3 days camping and hiking up in Yellowstone Park. :)

The weather was gorgeous, and I took over 160 incredibly nice photos while we were there!! I wasn't sure where to start as far as posting them here, so I am organizing them into several posts which will go up over the next few weeks.

In the meantime, I thought that I would give a preview with some highlights of the trip, using some of my favorite pictures that I took. I hope you enjoy, and please do come back over the next few weeks as I add more posts with more details from my awesome trip to Yellowstone!

For starters, of course a trip to Yellowstone means seeing many buffalo, and the ones we saw were very healthy, like this big boy:

I'll be doing a post just on the buffalo of Yellowstone soon, so stay tuned!!

These trees really caught my eye. You can see where the buffalo (and perhaps moose and elk?) rub on them:

I'll also be doing a post with some great photos of the trees and mountains. :)

One of my favorite places in the park is Yellowstone Lake, it is absolutely beautiful:

So are the numerous waterfalls:

A post on the lovely water features of Yellowstone is sure to come as well, including some from the Fishing Bridge, where there were quite a few pelicans gathered:

I also took some great pictures and video of the various mineral pools and geysers (including Old Faithful, of course!!), which also deserve their own post:

But the best treat of all was seeing this big, beautiful grizzly bear, he was about 150 yards away and we followed him for over an hour:

Needless to say, he deserves an entire post dedicated to him, as well.

Anyway, I hope this whetted your appetite for more, so please check back here at Tetons and Beyond over the next few weeks for more in-depth coverage of our trip!!

I know you will enjoy!! ;)

Chelle B.