River crossing
the river was calm and shallow at this time of the year
Bison are probably the easiest animals to see in Yellowstone. At this point in time there are around 4,300 bison in the park - all descended from only 23 individuals that survived the hunting and purges of the late 1800's. At one point in time there were 30 million bison in the US. Today there are around 500,000. The herds in Yellowstone are the only ones that were never completely wiped out and re-introduced. This is part of the northern range herd that occupies the Lamar Valley. This is the same area that wolves were reintroduced into. I believe there was wolf activity in this area earlier in the morning (judging from the large crowds..) but we declined to join the fray. When we were there someone with a spotting scope showed me a clump of trees that had wolf pups under them. I think I may have seen some shilloutes of ears...
The American bison is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds. Their range once roughly comprised a triangle between the Great Bear Lake in Canada's far northwest, south to the Mexican states of Durango and Nuevo León, and east along the western boundary of the Appalachian Mountains.
