Yellowstone Bison are Taking up Entertainment
You probably don’t want to play with them, but bison apparently enjoy a good romp on a snowy day. I came across this link at whiskeyriff.com. It’s from the Facebook page of a woman named Tina Grondell. It appears she spends a lot of time visiting Yellowstone and taking pictures and videos of the scenery and wildlife (wouldn’t that be a great line of work!)
In one particular video, she appears to have encountered a bison playing in the snow. Including rolling around in the middle of a road, while oblivious to a vehicle being stopped there. It would be a blessing to witness something like this in person.
It may not be all play. A friend of mine had a really large dog and I would sometimes take her out for walks on winter days. She would rush over to snowbanks and roll around. At the time I thought she was cooling off. An animal behaviorist later told me she was detecting smells of other animals, including urine, and rolling around to leave her scent to diminish the other smell.
Looking back on those days, I would often wrestle with the same dog after the walk. I wish I had known she needed a bath instead.
Meanwhile, bison travel in large herds and what appear to some tourists as stampedes. Check out the video below to get an idea of how powerful these creatures are. They’re built like light pickup trucks. Whatever you do, don’t try and join them. They tend to trample obstacles.