Buffalo vs. Bison - dramatic photos

[Common Sense Party]

Forgive me if you've seen these before. I just saw them via some chain e-mail.

Life-and-death chase in Yellowstone National Park, as a grizzly chases a burned bison down the road.

Yikes!

http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/gallery/hunting/2010/11/amateur-photographer-captures-grizzly-bear-chasing-bison-down-highway?photo=0#node-1001374086



Go to the link to see the whole series.

[Common Sense Party]

1. Some of the story:

Alex Wypyszinski, a retired professor and amateur photographer, shot this amazing series of photos of a grizzly bear chasing down an injured bison when he stopped to take photos of geysers in Yellowstone National Park in May. We got the story from the man behind the camera, who works at a post office in the park during the summers.



“That’s one of my favorite drives every morning and I stopped in the middle of the road to take a picture of the geysers off on the other end of a big meadow and then I heard the animals before I saw them,” says Wypyszinski who has seen and photographed plenty of bears in Yellowstone over the years. “At first I had a hard time figuring out what they were. I figured it was a couple of moose, possibly."

“At first...I figured that the bear had already gotten started on him, but it became apparent from the head that it had been badly burned and that was confirmed when I showed the pictures to some interpretive rangers at the Old Faithful Visitor’s Center,” Wypyszinski says. “That’s the only thing that could have done that much damage to the animal. It probably fell into a pool.”


The area has a high level of thermal activity with many boiling pools and steaming geysers.

[Flaxbee]

3. poor buffalo -- I think I read that park rangers found him and

put him down because he'd been burned too badly.

[Common Sense Party]

4. Yes, that's what the story says. The circle of life...

I guess if the buffalo had to go anyway, I wish the bear would have gotten a meal for all his (her?) efforts.

The bison should have read the signs warning you from getting too close to the thermal pots.

[Common Sense Party]

2. Passing lane...

[geardaddy]

5. Wouldn't that be: Bear vs. Bison?

Excellent photos.

[Common Sense Party]

7. Whoops! Yes! BEAR vs. BISON! Doh! It's too late to edit.

[fishwax]

6. wow!

:wow:

[dawg]

8. Colbert was right.

Scary. :scared:

[applegrove]

9. My grandfather's aunt was married to a man whose brother

saved the last 13 buffalo's from extinction. He saw fur traders come in with thousands of buffalo pelts at a time and figured unless he didn't start rescueing orphaned buffalo they would all be gone in no time. His herd is the basis of all buffalo alive in North America today.

[hailhydra]

10. This photographer has balls of steel...

On a recent trip to Yellowstone a bison was wandering through a lane of traffic. It walked slowly past a line of cars that I was a part of. The animal walked up to my car and then turned and walked right in front of it. It was soooo big I was a little ferklempt.

I don't know what I would do if I saw this duo barrelling down the road right at me. I would really worry that the bear might say, "Hmmm... There's an easy meal!" and hang a left after changing his dinner order to human.