American Bison

Bison bison




 

"May God's dog serenade your campfire, may the rattlesnake and the screech owl amuse your reverie, may the Great Sun dazzle your eyes by day and the Great Bear watch over you by night."

--- Edward Abbey --

 



Everything in nature is there for a reason. Wildlife biologists believe that the orange color of the bison calf enables it to blend in with the prairie grasses of its natural habitat, rendering it invisible to (what was) the bison's main predator, the color blind great plains (buffalo) wolf (C.l. nubilus). 

This seemed to work well for the bison, as their numbers swelled into the millions,  until a new predator appeared on the scene -- one with no vision problems at all!

Don't you wish they'd bring back the "real" buffalo nickel?

These photographs are © copyright 2003, Carl Cook. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission, including Internet use. Photographs are protected by and registered with Digimarc. Prints are available. For information or to comment, please click here. clcook@olywa.net

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