Thousand Pound Ninjas

[joebartels]

Go admire* slipper-footed neighbors at Grand Canyon
https://azdailysun.com/news/science/the ... f7d0d.html
* From a safe quarter mile away, carrying and continuously consuming water, leave an itinerary, never hike alone, do not speed en route

[big_load]

Go admire* slipper-footed neighbors at Grand Canyon
https://azdailysun.com/news/science/the ... f7d0d.html
* From a safe quarter mile away, carrying and continuously consuming water, leave an itinerary, never hike alone, do not speed en route

The story contained this observation: “I do hear a lot from bison managers that they don’t go in the woods and they don't climb,” she reported. “But those things happen at Grand Canyon.”

Although that may be a common belief, there's plenty of historical evidence to the contrary. After all, Wood Bison are a recognized subspecies that were formerly widespread in the boreal forest. It's noteworthy that they're also called Mountain Bison. I was pondering this topic while reading about Zebulon Pike's 1806 expedition. During parts of the journey, they subsisted primarily on Bison, especially in the winter as they were up into the ponderosas as they started to cross the Sangre de Cristos.

[Alston_Neal]

Wood Bison are a recognized subspecies that were formerly widespread in the boreal forest

This is interesting since I have grown up in AZ being told that bison and elk were introduced (elk) and reintroduced (bison). That historically there was a bison subspecies long since disappeared, but never elk. Then again there was a time AZGF taught me that the Kaibab squirrel muted from the Abert's squirrel when the canyon grew wider.