Our trip to the Bison Ranch

The American Bison is the largest land animal in North America.  We took a road trip up to Laramie, Wyoming yesterday.  Males can stand six feet tall from hoof to shoulder and weigh from 1000-2000 lbs.  Females are a foot shorter and weigh half that.  The Bison is a grazer and eats mostly grasses and sedges.  It will occasionally eat berries and lichen.

My girlfriend's nephew has a Bison Ranch and we went on our annual jaunt to see the newborns.  There were over 200 new calves with most  of them being only a month old.  Newborn bison are reddish brown and can stand shortly after birth.  At two months the calf will start to develop shoulder humps and horns, and are usually weaned by seven months.

We had fun wandering around the various buildings and pens that make up the ranch.  Enjoyed a great BBQ lunch and brought back some drought tolerant, nitrogen fixing plants for our gardens; Bird foot trefoil, Caragana,2 Groove milk vetch, purple iris, along with some hybrid alfalfa seeds to attract butterflies.

This little guy is thought to be about two days old.   We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to see these impressive animals that live on plains, prairies and river valleys.