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<\/a><\/p>\nThey spend most of their time higher up on the island\u00a0but they regularly visit this area where the island slopes down to meet the mud flats of the Great Salt Lake because there are fresh water springs in the vicinity.\u00a0 The lake itself\u00a0is highly saline and undrinkable.\u00a0 Here they’re also enjoying the green grass close to the springs.<\/p>\n
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Occasionally some of them even venture out into the shallow water of the lake.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n But they\u00a0spend most of their time higher up on the island.\u00a0 That’s not a road in the middle of the photo – it’s a well-worn bison trail, with smaller spurs coming down to meet it from above.\u00a0 It’s this trail that leads to some of the springs in the previous photos.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And when they’re coming down that trail to the water they sometimes do it in a rush.\u00a0 These bison are running pell-mell down the hill toward the springs.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The herd filed past me very close as they crossed one of the roads and this animal was doing something that is very common for bison – licking its nostril.\u00a0 I have a couple of theories (wild guesses, actually) as to why they do this.\u00a0 These animals lose a lot of water through their nostrils – they’re constantly dripping the watery mucus.\u00a0 So I’ve wondered if it’s an adaptation to\u00a0conserve either water or salt or both.\u00a0 Who knows?…<\/p>\n Their bi-colored tongue intrigues me.<\/p>\n This individual is still losing patches of its winter coat.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n To get to the springs the\u00a0bison have to cross the only road going south on the island and they\u00a0cross it at their leisure.\u00a0 If there are lots of animals in the group you might as well sit back, turn the engine off and enjoy the view for a while.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The calves are red, cute and rambunctious…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n and it doesn’t take them long to begin growing horns.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It’s now calving season on the island – this photo was taken just five days ago.\u00a0 Each cow has a newborn calf next to her.\u00a0 There were roughly 100 cows in this group, most of them with vulnerable calves on the ground.\u00a0 I don’t know if there were other groups like this elsewhere on the island – it’s a big <\/em>island (42 square miles of grasslands, rocky slopes, mountains and many hidden gulleys).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bison love to roll in dirt wallows and when they\u00a0do they can look pretty silly. It’s amazing how much dirt, mud and\/or dust can be thrown up when these huge animals go for a roll.\u00a0 I have photos of them wallowing where the bison can barely be seen through all of the dust and dirt.<\/p>\n The round, shallow dirt wallows can be found all over the island.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The bulls can be massive, weighing up to 2,000 lbs.\u00a0 Here one of them is grazing in the snow\u00a0next to the lake with the Wasatch Mountains in the background and a starling hitching a ride on its back.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bison are unpredictable.\u00a0 Typically they appear peaceful, even lazy but they may attack anything, including each other, without warning or apparent reason.\u00a0 They can run 35 mph, their horns are dangerous, they can\u00a0use their hind legs to maim and kill with devastating effect\u00a0and they use their massive heads as battering rams – imagine a ton on the hoof at those speeds.<\/p>\n Just recently a man was attacked\u00a0by a bison on the island (whether or not the attack was provoked depends on who you talk to).\u00a0 The animal rammed him into a chain link fence which had a lot of give to it\u00a0and that’s probably the reason he survived.\u00a0 Here’s a link<\/strong><\/a> about the incident – it’s an interesting read and includes a news story\u00a0video clip.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
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