Very lucky, aren't we?
We quite often take a drive out and check up on them, huge, shaggy beasts that they are. We are fascinated by these near extinct creatures!
The buffalo of the west were almost lost to us. White hunters came and massacred them for their hides, leaving the carcasses to just rot in the sun. Many of the natives of our lands relied on them for food and clothing, never wasting a scrap and only taking what they needed.
Our kind has not always made the best choices, but thankfully, a few folks made the right decisions and we have buffalo today to marvel at.
We went over a week ago and really have to apologise for the poor quality of the photos. It was during our January thaw and it was alternating between pouring and just a dull drizzle.
Dick took these pictures!
Not a very large herd. Just a few.
Massive heads and matted fur. They lift their heads when we drive up, nostrils flared to catch our scent. Trying in vain to make up for notoriously poor eyesight.
We sit as quietly as we can in the truck. The ten foot tall fence hardly a barrier if they decide to rush headlong in any direction.
They scuff the snow from the brown tufts of grass, foraging as they've done for hundreds of years. The farmer brings enormous bales of hay to supplement the scrawny grasses.
Something else has finally caught his attention. For the moment we are forgotten.
I promise we will go back and take better photos for you.
7 comments:
G'eve ~ We have a HUGE buffalo farm just over the PA border that we love to visit ... they are so HUGE, but even more fun are the wee ones after birthing.
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Aren't they amazing! We saw three at Yellowstone last fall. We drove by one that was in the road--it was so close I could have reached out the window and petted it--but I was too scared! lol
I live close to an area called Land Between the Lakes, and there is a large buffalo herd living there, which we've visited twice. You make me determined to visit again. There's something sad about the buffalo - or maybe it's just that we know their history - what a majestic creature, once strong in number, freely roaming the land, and now limited to a few herds scattered across the land.
They are fascinating creatures, it is sad how they were nearly made extinct by greed. There are quite a few herds in the Pacific Northwest, one just south of us in Oregon.
Amazing! How lucky are you! Its so dense in the ADKS, your lucky to see any open pastures around here. I was raised in the Blue Ridge Mnts. with lots of farms and open fields for miles around. Its so nice that you have a place near by to enjoy and even notice nature!
I love the buffalo... we have some near us yet this year we do not see them as often... The bulls are usually off by themselves and they are magnificent to watch... especially in this snowly world we have now...
Beautiful! I love buffalo, they always seem so stolid and doughty.
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