Oh, how I love nature, especially when I get the opportunity to photograph and show others via this blog just how interesting it can be in hopes other people will get out and appreciate the natural world around us a bit more as well.
This morning, I headed out for one of my favorite places, Antelope Island, in hopes of doing just that, and what I was treated with today is one of the main reasons why I purchase the annual Utah State Park pass and visit the island a couple times per week.
Antelope Island is home to a wide variety of wildlife, ranging from bison to birds, to spiders, to snakes, to porcupines, to coyotes, to mule deer, to pronghorn, and yes, even a type of scorpion lives on the island.
Being a bird watcher, birds are always the biggest reason why I visit Antelope Island, but the large bison bulls are, however, a very close second and for a good reason I might add.
Winter is the slowest time for bird watching on Antelope Island and lately, it has also been hard to find the large herd of bison that freely roams the large state park.
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Even the massive bison bulls have seemingly been in hiding the past few weeks as I have had many trips where not a bison was found anywhere on the island.
But today, however, 3 of the largest bulls on Antelope Island presented themselves in a small, loose group near the park headquarters, very close to the gravel road I was on, so naturally, I had to stop and try and take some photographs of these impressive animals.
From what I learned from attending the annual Antelope Island Bison Roundup a few months back, some of these large bison bulls are from Custer State Park in South Dakota.
The bulls are brought in and added to the herd every so often to help diversify the bison gene pool on the island.
They certainly are quite large and very impressive animals, to say the least.
But these large breeding bulls don’t stay with the main bison herd on the east side of the island but rather keep to themselves most of the year on the west side of the island near the visitors center and park headquarters areas.
During the breeding season, the large bulls mingle with the cows but outside of this short mating period, the bulls are mainly solitary creatures for the most part.
These large bulls can be quite temperamental so even during the annual bison roundup, they are left alone for safety reasons and why visitors should never approach them at any time.
I was able to photograph them today from a very long distance away with a 600mm lens on my camera so even though the images are close-ups, I was nowhere near that close to the bulls, and never would I attempt to get so close to any of the bison on the island.
In fact, bison bulls can weigh as much as 2,000 pounds, twice as much as the cows so they can be quite dangerous if provoked.
When looking for the large bison bulls on Antelope Island, start searching around the park headquarters, campgrounds, and visitors center areas on the west side of the island.
Occasionally, the bulls can be found on the very north end on the east side of the island where the Fielding Garr Ranch road splits from the road to the campgrounds, but more than not, I personally find the big bison bulls most of the time on the west side of the island.
Enjoy them, photograph them but from a safe distance.
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