How Flexible Do You Think A Big Ol’ Bull Bison Could Be?

You might be surprised. I was.

When I was a kid my dad would sometimes, often at my request, show me how limber and flexible he was by performing what I thought should be a physically impossible stunt. I’ll try to describe what he did as best I can, see if you can follow it. He would sit on the floor with his legs almost straight out in front of him and then pull his left foot toward him and place it on top of his right knee. Easy-peasy so far but wait for it.

Then he would pull his right foot forward and place it  on top of his left knee, which to me seemed impossible. I thought it should have separated his knees at their joints – knees just don’t bend to the side. This position caused his legs to form a rigid, locked triangle so then he would straighten at the waist with his locked legs beneath him and “walk” on the points of his knees which formed two corners of the locked triangle. He looked incredibly silly doing it but the fact that he could blew my little mind.

Then he’d challenge me to do the same thing and even though I tried to the point of significant pain I couldn’t even come close. Dad was tall and thin but I was much younger and more athletic so I thought that should even things out but it didn’t. When I failed miserably at my attempts, which I did every time, he’d tease me by calling me “muscle bound”, unlock his legs, get up and walk away with a superior smile on his face.

 

Eight days ago on Antelope Island I saw a huge Bison bull do something that immediately brought back memories of Dad’s amazing flexibility. And my lack of same.

 

Just before this photo was taken I had the jaw-dropping and humbling experience of watching what must have been almost the entire Antelope Island Bison herd (500-700 animals) stream toward me over the top of a nearby small mountain. They were rushing toward one of the only fresh water sources remaining on the island in this drought – a large water tank placed there specifically for Bison and other large mammals.

Only a few moments before a bison cow had rolled in this small wallow so when this huge bull came along he stopped at the same wallow, sniffed it, and then…

 

 

began rolling in it himself. He was so enthusiastic about his ‘bath’, and he raised so much dust, I could barely see him in most of my photos.

Before you scroll down to the next photo, go back and look at the first one again. Does that huge mass of muscle and bone look like it could be very flexible? To me he looks like the epitome of “muscle bound”.

 

 

Toward the end of his wallowing he reached back, way back, to inspect his nether parts.

Over the years I’ve spent a lot of time watching Bison up close and personal but I was unaware that such a massive, thick-bodied bull could bend his body at such an extreme angle.

I don’t know about you but I’m impressed. I knew they were fast runners when they needed to be but when you throw this much flexibility into the equation you have an unusually formidable potential foe.

Never piss off a Bison!

Ron

 

39 Comments

  1. Arwen Professional Joy Seeker

    I’m just giggling! I would have been laughing hysterically!

  2. Thanks, Ron, for providing the link to your 2013 bison post. So interesting to see them in their group – the photo of all the newborns and their moms from that post was just terrific. And what a stark contrast – the green grass from then against the dry, dry conditions now. Hope the rain you had is helping fill up some of those water holes!

    • “Hope the rain you had is helping fill up some of those water holes!”

      I hope it helped at least a little, Carolyn, But often when we we precipitation (rain or snow) along the Wasatch Front it completely skips the island. This time it was pretty widespread so maybe the island got a good dump too.

  3. Once upon I time I could do Full Lotus – and ‘walk’ in that position. These days I am as flexible as a brick. And awed at the stretch that Captain Bison can achieve.

  4. Am I the only one who tried your dad’s trick (or admitting it)? I did it but only by sitting cross-legged and pulling my feet up over my thighs. The walking on knees part was not fun so that lasted for two steps.
    For my next trick I’m gonna find a dust patch to wallow in, sans bison. I’m no idiot like that bicyclist.

  5. Love the photos of a very impressive animal that deserves more support (are they not a keystone species?) and your story was, as usual, amusing and great entertainment. Put me in mind of a biology teacher I had when very young who tried to explain genetic diversity or maybe nurture vs nature ( hey, more than 60+ years ago so who really remembers ?) to wee ones by having us all try to turn our tongues upside down, explaining, if I remember correctly, something about where the tongues were hinged being the operative factor. I’m guessing flexibility of the knee joint is similar. (And this coming from a non-tongue-twister variant who definitely never managed the full lotus either.)

    • Loved your comment, Granny Pat – only in part because I enjoy hearing biology teacher stories that were memorable enough (in a positive way I hope) to be recalled so many years later.

      I’m a tongue-twister but that full lotus position is WAY out of my reach.

  6. When I photographed this not long ago I was also amazed at the flexibility.

    I do feel for them with all the flies they are covered in. I wonder how well the dust bath helps with some of the biting ones.

  7. WOW! I learn something everyday from your posts.
    Well done,

    Kaye

  8. Such powerful images! Wow!

    I’ve sent you a few emails.
    I do hope you could reply!
    Have a great weekend!

  9. I have done yoga for 40 years and I can fold my legs onto my thighs like that, but no longer, at 83, am I able to walk on my knee caps!

  10. Everett F Sanborn

    Ron – apologies for a second comment, but after posting my original I suddenly had a vision of that comical but ludicrous scene in Dances With Wolves where Kevin Costner sitting on the ground is trying to illustrate to Graham Greene that he has seen buffalo. And Greene realizes that he is talking about “tatonka.” and the two of them are sitting there making horns with their fingers and repeating tatonka tatonka.

    • Your description made me remember that scene distinctly, Everett.

      I’ve always been a Costner fan and that was only reinforced by the recent pro baseball game at the new “Field of Dreams”.

  11. Everett F Sanborn

    At 83 I am definitely not going to try to perform your dad’s flexibility feat. I have only seen bison at the GC North Rim and on a field outside of Zion. Never close enough to know much about them, but like Terri and her husband, I would have back peddled down that stream.
    You never cease to entertain us. It’s not always about the feathered guys and gals.

    • “You never cease to entertain us”

      Good to know, Everett. I know that many of my readers expect to see bird photos when they come here so I probably disappoint some of them when I don’t include any.

  12. I’m glad that you provided a link to the 2013 piece on the Antelope Island herd–
    that was before I’d joined your posse, so it was all new and interesting to me.
    I wonder if that biker ever found out that he’d become a “celebrity ”
    due to his stupidity and your camera ?

  13. Those capabilities make the native Americans’ killing of them before firearms arrived a very impressive feat. No wonder they ran them off a cliff.

  14. Same here on left vs. right side flexibility tho I know I have a slightly twisted pelvis which, probably, doesn’t help.

  15. Never piss off a bison for sure! Ten yrs ago my ex and I were paddling up the Little Missouri River after a rainstorm two days previous (raising the level high enough to paddle that little creek) in the Teddy Roosevelt Natl Park, North Dakota. We were the only souls around for miles. With me at the bow, I saw a huge cloud of dust along the shore, put my binoculars to that point, patiently waited a long while to see what kind of lovely animal we’d see . . . and this humongous black head with horns emerged from the dusty cloud along the shoreline brush! I nearly crapped in my pants! He walked to the middle of the creek, we had a staring-down contest for about 10 minutes, and I finally convinced my ex it was best not to go on but to go back home.

  16. Impressive! Guess it’s logical that they can/need to do that BUT I certainly wouldn’t have imagined it! 🙂 I’m one of those “muscle bound” folks to whom flexibility is an alien concept… 😉

    • ” I’m one of those “muscle bound” folks to whom flexibility is an alien concept”

      Me too, Judy. And for some reason I’ve always been much more flexible on my left side than on my right.

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