Buffalo in the Winter -- the kind you eat not
the city.
Mentioned to a few fellows last night that I spent most of Saturday driving to and back from an oil well location in the badlands of North Dakota. Stumbled across these guys. Not much snow this year so they are up high on the grassy mesa feeding instead of down in the river valley.
These are in the S unit of the Theodore Roosevelt Park. Occassionally they get out and then a buffalo hunt starts up.[:p]
Mentioned to a few fellows last night that I spent most of Saturday driving to and back from an oil well location in the badlands of North Dakota. Stumbled across these guys. Not much snow this year so they are up high on the grassy mesa feeding instead of down in the river valley.
These are in the S unit of the Theodore Roosevelt Park. Occassionally they get out and then a buffalo hunt starts up.[:p]
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Nice picture and some fine looking country, they look like cows and calves, any bunches of bulls around 0 -
Very nice! 0 -
That's some beautiful country. It makes me want to drive up to North Dakota the next time I'm in Minnesota just to see The Teddy Roosevelt State Park. I love state parks like that. 0 -
That's gotta be the Painted Canyon pull-off from I-94!
I did my master's research in that park, and it was a damn fine place to do what amounted to hard labor. I'm getting back to where I can appreciate the sight of a bison but there were a few years in there when I'd have told you that you could have'em. There's nothing like trying to hike eight miles back to the truck with a 40 pound pack on at the end of a long day, and then seeing a herd of bison in your path. Hmmm, that adds at least a mile to the hike!
That was only an issue during the rut. In May/June, they'll run like hell when they see you. In late June/early July they'll stand there and look at you while you try maintain a balance between decent distance and not hiking WAY off the trail. In late July/early August they're downright belligerent.
I had close encounters with several of them. Usually it was a matter of coming around a butte and--WHOA! Bison! Right there! Back off! But there was one day I had a friend visiting and I took her on a hike. She was too proud to tell me she had crappy knees, so we were about 3 miles up a rough trail and across the Little Missouri by the time she let me know she was having problems. So....I tried to find the easiest way back, which entailed walking down a very narrow, steep-sided draw. Three-fourths of the way down we meet Mr. Bison (early July so I'm not too worried, but still). I convinced my friend that she really did need to climb at least 25 feet up the side of the draw wall, and having done that we passed much closer to that beast than I was comfortable with. Later that same evening I heard that there had been two unrelated but very ugly Bison/human encounters in Badlands Nat'l Park (SD)--that same day. Both dudes got gored; I think I recall that one of them (an elderly gentleman) died as a result of his injuries. And from what I heard, neither of them were being the prototypical I-need-a-photo-of-myself-petting-this-bison idiots that we so frequently encountered in the park.
One of them charged my car once, but I was being kind of a dumbass...so I was just lucky it didn't get me, and if it had gotten me it would have been my fault. Another did manage to rip the side panel off of the new SUV of a tourist one day...the park staff and auxiliary associates (like me) got a mean-spirited kick out of that one.
So, uhhh, thanks for posting that. It triggered a pleasant walk down memory lane!0 -
Where are their wings? 0 -
quote:Originally posted by idsman75
That's some beautiful country. It makes me want to drive up to North Dakota the next time I'm in Minnesota just to see The Teddy Roosevelt State Park. I love state parks like that.
It's a national park, but who's keeping score?
If you're willing to drive all the way to the west end of ND from MN (five hours from the state line, eight hours from the Twin Cities), do yourself a favor and make the extra 80 miles up to the North Unit of the park. In the South Unit, almost anything I saw I could get to (i.e. hike to). In the North Unit, there were many buttes that seemed insurmountable for a reasonable hiker. It's much more rugged country. North Unit also gets much less traffic because it's 80 miles off the interstate. But the South Unit does have better amenities, more of a scenic drive, and more hiking trails. I guess it depends on what you're looking for.0 -
Try roping one off horseback, it does NOT work. As soon as you take your dalley & turn left the rope closes around their neck, it breaks their wind pipe & kills them dead. unlike cattle where the wind pipe will not collapse.
dan0 -
quote:Originally posted by danlittle
Try roping one off horseback, it does NOT work. As soon as you take your dalley & turn left the rope closes around their neck, it breaks their wind pipe & kills them dead. unlike cattle where the wind pipe will not collapse.
dan
quote:Originally posted by danlittle
Try roping one off horseback, it does NOT work. As soon as you take your dalley & turn left the rope closes around their neck, it breaks their wind pipe & kills them dead. unlike cattle where the wind pipe will not collapse.
dan
Interesting.
As plains scout pointed out, these bison do occasionally escape the park. While I worked there the park basically had a 'three-strikes' policy. So the third time that a particular bison escaped, the hunt was on. This happened once during my three years working at that park. Don't ask me how they knew one bison from the next (with a herd of 400 roaming 40 square miles and no effort to tag them it's a mystery to me). I will say that there were a total of five escapes while I was there and the three that resulted in a hunt happened within a one-month period. So either some particular bison learned how to bust out, or else there was an undetected breech in the 40-mile fence that surrounds the park....through some pretty rough country.
Anyway, the guy who got to shoot the animal (and there was some competition for this task) was a young, ex-military dude who was then new on their LE staff. He's a good guy, he's a smart guy and he's from rural Nebraska, so this next part is inexplicable to me. He shot the animal three times--in the head--before it went down. I'm dead-certain he was using 'enough gun for the job.' I think it was a 30-06, but I'm less sure of that.
I'm not a hunter, but my understanding is that the preferred shot is the heart shot. Maybe you can get away with a head shot if a deer or an antelope is close, but bison (witness this post!) have thick skulls. Maybe a big-game hunter here knows something I don't and can educate me.
Anyway, maybe the park needs to think about investing in some lasso's... the way you describe it, it would be a lot easier than shooting the beasts[:D][:D]0 -
Swell pics plains scout, thanks for sharing. 0 -
planes scout, your pics are much better, this is the view out my front window. 0 -
Spurge has the straight dope on these big guys and gals. They are tough.
When provoked they can do some nasty stuff.
Spurge is also right. North Unit is superior. Less tourist trap as well. The River Ghost Ranch is "up stream" from the N Unit to the great bend in the river. It is my hunting grounds.
The picture was right before you come down off the mesa and into the bottom of the park. Hit Pacific Ave. take a left. Three quarters of a mile a mile turn right into the Iron Horse Saloon for a brew and a tomater juice.
I like my buffalo medium rare.[:D]0 -
I could be wrong but technically I think they are called Bison, not Buffalo. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by danlittle
Try roping one off horseback, it does NOT work. As soon as you take your dalley & turn left the rope closes around their neck, it breaks their wind pipe & kills them dead. unlike cattle where the wind pipe will not collapse.
dan
Hmmmmmmmmmm. Interesting. I have roped a few cows, But never roped a buffalo.
I have got to ask, Why would you try to rope a buffalo anyways. Thats what good cow dogs are for.0 -
quote: I could be wrong but technically I think they are called Bison, not Buffalo.
Scientifically you are correct.
But I have never heard an Indian call them Bison. They hunted buffalo.[;)]0 -
quote:Originally posted by plains scout
quote: I could be wrong but technically I think they are called Bison, not Buffalo.
Scientifically you are correct.
But I have never heard an Indian call them Bison. They hunted buffalo.[;)]
according to kevin costner they were called "ta ton ka" lol0 -
quote:Originally posted by stevenrayspeck
quote:Originally posted by danlittle
Try roping one off horseback, it does NOT work. As soon as you take your dalley & turn left the rope closes around their neck, it breaks their wind pipe & kills them dead. unlike cattle where the wind pipe will not collapse.
dan
Hmmmmmmmmmm. Interesting. I have roped a few cows, But never roped a buffalo.
I have got to ask, Why would you try to rope a buffalo anyways. Thats what good cow dogs are for.
A breeder north of me had several get out a couple of years ago, so we offered to rope them & get them back in. out of 5 we ended up killing 3 before we were told by a state vet about the wind pipe & the way it will collapse & not recover as a cows will.
Dan0
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