I try to stay away from wild, North American pickup trucks. They are dangerous and unpredictable.
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Mess with the bull, you get the horns. When I was a kid, we’d ride our bikes through people’s fields all the time. Dogs were pretty easy to cow, but if a bull thinks you’re on his turf, you’re in trouble. A lot of people have misconceptions about how aggressive bulls actually are, because mostly what you see are steers, which have a much mellower disposition.
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Cousin Chris? Is this why you went into banking?
Once, while driving my POS Car #2 through the Black Hills, I saw an oncoming car almost get tossed by a buffalo trotting down the centerline of the road. I had slowed and pulled onto the shoulder, but when I saw THAT, my thought was: “No! Gore THIS car!”
I would turned up at every car show and charged people a dollar to touch the dent.
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We probably only have about 8-10 years to wait for her TED talk as a field biologist, with this as a side note.
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But is the bison ok? These kind of stories often don’t end well for the animals involved.
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As a kid we kept small herds of various cattle. Herfords, longhorns, Brahman.
I was never afraid to go out in the pasture with a stick in hand to help herding, except for with the brahmas. Steers, cows, bull, didn’t matter. Those things are intimidating AF. I suppose like most cattle if accustomed to close contact with people they could be pretty mellow, but not these ones.
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I trust you immediately quipped, “U mad, Brah?”
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Looked like, and behavior matched big brothers, not parents…
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Once, while meandering through a exhibition of prize-winning livestock*, I saw a pen that had been wrapped in tarps to hide the contents from casual viewers. I, of course, peeked through the gap and watched a small buffalo calf charging and terrorizing his slightly larger sisters. They were crammed into the corner of the pen, wild-eyed, as he repeatedly used his itty-bitty horn nubbins to headbutt their rear-ends.
Even the small ones are just plain ornery.
*Some people like to indulge their fantasies at car dealerships. I like to fantasize I can afford a herd of buffalo and enough land to let them run around. National Western Stock Show
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“What did you do over Summer vacation”?
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Man, that video reminds me of my run-in with bison as a kid.
We were at Elk Island National Park (in Canada) and me, my sister and my dad were at a playground when a small herd of bison came up and surrounded the playground. We didn’t notice them in time to get away safely, and the big bull in the group took offence to our presence. We quickly moved into the playground and ended up hiding in a play structure for about 40 minutes until they went off to greener pastures.
Do not fuck with bison.
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I wouldn’t be surprised if the parents were behind the camera, capturing the “cuteness” of their children invading the space of a massive wild animal.
The bright side is that the girl has a guaranteed future as a rodeo clown now, even if bad parenting stands in the way of other hopes and dreams.
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Yeah - notice that not even the ultra-macho bull-riders don’t try to ride buffaloes! That would get me into the bleachers!
…the one time, before the ‘sport’ would be completely, globally banned…
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It’s probably a good thing she was so young, more flexible and resiliant. If I took the same trip at my age, I think bones would have been broken.
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U. of Colorado has a (female, domesticated/trained) bison as a mascot. She sometimes makes appearances at the stock show, with half a dozen collegiate sprinters manning the harness and a few other personnel running alongside to step in should anything go wrong.
She had a wild run a few years back, when one handler tripped right out of the gate and a few others got tangled up in sideline equipment. That moment with just one guy on the end of the rope is about as close as you’re probably going to get to cowboys tangling with bison.
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That is not a happy animal.
Also, much smaller than bison.
One time on the road between Yellowknife and Fort Providence the entire road wa blocked by a herd of bison lying down and sunning themselves in the road. We had to wait about 40 minutes before they decided to amble on their way. While I generally take about zero shit from any animal, I didn’t even think about honking at those guys.
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I’ve always wanted to have ‘Ralphie’ spend her retirement years in my ‘fantasy post-lottery’ backyard.
She didn’t look serious in that clip. She ran where she was supposed to - down the field and back into the trailer, she just did it a little faster than the guys.
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They never threw me but did everything else…Black Angus: Mean, spiteful and sneaky.
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I develop software for a living as an adult… It left both a literal and metaphorical impression.
Same thing for my uncle. Small herd to get a tax exemption for ag use.
I saw two bulls, one that same uncle owned and one of his neighbor’s Kool Aid Man it through two Barbed wire fences and start headbutting one another. For as sweet as some are, they had some asshole cows.
Nice to see so much support for my “most cows are jerks” theory out there. Feels nice.
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