I was 10 feet from a herd of Bison! And not in my car! My husband and I enjoy hiking. We love the outdoors. Seeing as we live on the west coast of Canada, we take advantage of the Canadian Rocky Mountains and get outside as much as we can. This particular weekend we decided to go hiking along the trails at Elk Island National Park. (Disclaimer: Elk Island National Park does not have mountains, but does have bison, and obviously, elk.)
The history about Elk Island and its bison is well captured in a book called, “Through the Storm”, by Lauren Markewicz. I picked it up at the information centre, and it runs through the history of the bison in North America and the beginning of Elk Island and Wood Buffalo National Parks. I also like the bison sticks. It is a yummy snack and you should try it.
Please be advised that the word “buffalo” from the French “boeuf” (beef) was used to describe this animal the settlers saw when they first arrived on the plains. A hundred years later, taxonomists wanted to distinguish between the types of buffalo and used the Latin term, “bison”. So the names are inter-changeable and mean the same animal. You can think of buffalo as a common name and bison as the scientific taxonomist’s name.
It wss estimated there were between 30 and 60 million bison in the 19th century. This is however just an estimate as nobody kept a specific census on the animals back then. The idea is that there were plenty of bison, and now there are not. The history behind it is well written and extremely interesting in the book, “Through the Storm”.
What I did not know at the time that my husband and I were hiking, is whether bison are aggressive or more docile animals. Even when I looked it up on the internet later, they describe bison but no one tells you what to do if you see one. We all know about bears in Canada. They tell you what to do if you encounter one! I know what to do if I see a black bear. I hike with my bear spray. I know how to use my bear spray. I know if I see a Grizzly or Kodiak bear, I’m pretty much screwed, but a bison….um, not sure.
Now I did find out that bison are the biggest terrestrial animals in North America. A male can weigh as much as 900kg and stand up to six feet tall. A female can weigh up to 400kg. Let us all agree, they are pretty big creatures. It is nice to see pictures, but a very different experience in real life.
So my husband and I are hiking. We have never camped at Elk Island, so I had the brilliant idea that we should go walk around the campground and get an idea of what areas we like that we could potentially book for camping at a later date. My husband, the ever patient and tolerant guy that he is agreed.
This hike happened to be when the campground was closed. I had jokingly told my husband when we arrived at the park that I did not expect to see any bison during our stay since it was ‘off’ season. I was so wrong!
During our hike we followed the road around and noticed some bison up ahead. No big deal. We decide it is best to turn around and head back the way we came. So we do just that, and in a few minutes we see another bison. Now we are cornered! Where the hell did that bison come from?
I look to see that there are stairs from the upper road to the lower road. Are you kidding me? There is also a bison at the top of the stairs looking down at me. Did I just make eye contact? The bison used the stairs? Who knew? We need a game plan now.
We are on the lower road leading out of the campground and there are bison surrounding us. In our visual we see five bison, but I’m pretty sure there are probably more around somewhere, I mean, they use the stairs right?
My husband and I take a look at the bison closest to us. I size it up and my estimate is, “huge”. I, on the other hand, equal “not huge”. My husband is measured as, “knight in shining armor”. He actually took his arm and placed me behind him. (There is chivalry in the 21st century.)
Now, let us get a good visual of this situation. Silence…a beautiful blue sky, surrounded by trees, to the left of us is a cliff, to the right are the stairs and a slight climb to the upper road where the other bison is now munching on exposed grass. There is fresh air, and it is a relatively mild day at 0 degrees Celsius. The wind is light, and a bison about 10 feet away.
Then there is us, two tiny humans compared to a bison, with nothing but our brains to help us. My husband is slightly ahead of me, holding me back, and I’m having a great time looking around at my surroundings and deciding how I got here in the first place.
My simple mathematical calculation tells me that if something happens, I’m going to bet the bison is going to win.
We take a few steps back, as we see the bison staring at us and he has lifted his back leg in an attempt to ready himself to run. Hopefully, not at us, but seeing as he is directing his gaze at us, I’m not sure.
As we back up, he lowers his leg. That’s a good sign! My husband and I stop and look around and assess the situation. We cannot go back as there are bison behind us. We cannot go to our left as there is a cliff and we cannot go up the stairs as there is another bison. The only place to go is straight, right past the bison, which now puts us less than 10 feet away from it. Do we run? My husband decides that would spook it, so we decide to walk slowly and as far to the right of the road, and away from the bison as possible.
As we slowly walk past the bison, it is still looking at us. I decide to have a one sided conversation. “I totally get that we interrupted your dinner. We just want to walk by you and we are on our way. I am human and I don’t like anyone taking my food, so I can empathize with you. We are harmless. Actually, my diet is quite different than yours. Enjoy your food!” As we walk past, he was looking at us the whole time, but I was not sure what he was thinking. Usually I get a good instinct on what is happening, but I couldn’t get a sense of what this bison wanted. As soon as we passed by him, he went back to eating. I guess he really was only interested in his dinner after all!?
We laughed, because, well, we were grateful to be out of that situaton. It probably was not as big a deal as we made it out to be. However we were just less than 10 feet from a bison! Alli I can say is wow, that animal is incredibly large and beautiful. It was an adventure!
As we continued to walk back to our vehicle, I spoke to my husband about my fear. I was afraid of that situation because I did not know what would happen. Control was an important factor, as well as, the lack of knowledge about bison behavior. I would argue that knowledge in itself is not power, but the application of knowledge is power.
As we learn more about our self-knowledge, we can make better choices.
I remember a quote by Edward O. Wilson, “Human nature is, moreover, a hodgepodge of special genetic adaptations to an environment largely vanished, the world of the Ice Age hunter-gatherer.”
I recited the quote to my husband and he laughed. I guess we needed that for our excursion today. I do a lot of online videos and courses for self-development. I had one particular course on fear and the types of fear. The instructor had a great story about a man running towards his fear. I thought to myself, am I afraid of bison? I’m pretty sure running at it would not have helped that situation. I mean obviously I’m being literal.
The fears covered in the class included the ‘fear of losing control’. I know I do not have a fear of the animal, the bison, itself, but I do know that the fear of no control was what I was feeling at the time of this situation.
So, the question is what fears are holding you back? Even a long life is short. What do you have to run towards to conquer? Fears are merely sign posts indicating where you have to grow.
Life is nothing short of a series of great adventures! I so hope you live an adventurous life.
