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<\/p>\nYou might be surprised. I was.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Then he would pull his right foot forward and place it\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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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.<\/p>\n
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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.<\/p>\n
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…<\/p>\n
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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.<\/p>\n
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”.<\/p>\n
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Toward the end of his wallowing he reached back, way back<\/em>, to inspect his nether parts.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Never piss off a Bison!<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You might be surprised. I was.<\/p>\n