{"id":14526,"date":"2014-03-08T05:31:06","date_gmt":"2014-03-08T12:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=14526"},"modified":"2026-02-13T10:06:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T16:06:30","slug":"antelope-island-where-the-buffalo-still-roam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/03\/08\/antelope-island-where-the-buffalo-still-roam\/","title":{"rendered":"Antelope Island &#8211; Where The Buffalo Still Roam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-169002 size-full\" title=\"Close up of a an American Bison, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-mia-mcpherson-3535.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-mia-mcpherson-3535.jpg\" alt=\"Close up of a an American Bison, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah\" width=\"850\" height=\"607\" data-id=\"14524\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20850%20607%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-mia-mcpherson-3535-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-mia-mcpherson-3535-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-mia-mcpherson-3535-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-mia-mcpherson-3535-600x428.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-mia-mcpherson-3535-768x548.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-mia-mcpherson-3535.jpg 850w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><span style=\"color: #888888;\">Close up of a an American Bison &#8211; Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/200, ISO 500, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Antelope Island State Park in northern Utah\u00a0is a place where the &#8220;Buffalo&#8221; still roam unfettered by fences in a wild and majestic location.<\/p>\n<p>This photo; taken yesterday, shows how the grass has begun to green up and after a long winter of nothing but dried vegetation this bull seemed quite content to nibble on the fresh green grass.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-169007 size-full\" title=\"American Bison in early spring, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-spring-mia-mcpherson-3498.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-spring-mia-mcpherson-3498.jpg\" alt=\"American Bison in early spring, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah\" width=\"850\" height=\"495\" data-id=\"14525\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27495%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20850%20495%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27495%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-spring-mia-mcpherson-3498-200x116.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-spring-mia-mcpherson-3498-400x233.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-spring-mia-mcpherson-3498-600x349.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-spring-mia-mcpherson-3498-768x447.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-spring-mia-mcpherson-3498.jpg 850w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><span style=\"color: #888888;\">An American Bison in early spring\u00a0&#8211; Nikon D300, f8, 1\/250, ISO 500, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 200mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The dark patches of hide on this bison&#8217;s rump and back show that it is beginning to shed its thick winter coat. It won&#8217;t be long before the hind end of the bulls are sleek.<\/p>\n<p>When I saw and photographed this bull yesterday I thought of the bison slaughter going on up in Yellowstone, how\u00a0nearly 600 bison including pregnant cows were rounded up for <del>culling<\/del> slaughter because they don&#8217;t know where the boundary of the park ends and for population control.<\/p>\n<p>The bison\u00a0&#8220;might&#8221; expose the cattle to <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Brucellosis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Brucellosis<\/span><\/a> which can cause late term abortions in cattle. The thing is that bison never had Brucellosis <em>until<\/em> they were exposed to it by the cattle early pioneers brought with them.<\/p>\n<p>I read this morning that the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Yellowstone Bison Slaughter is done for the season<\/span><\/a> but also that it doesn&#8217;t mean that more won&#8217;t be captured. I linked to a Miami media outlet because the AP article is complete whereas most of\u00a0it is truncated in the media outlets closer to the park. I have to wonder why that is.<\/p>\n<p>I know that I am much less inclined to visit Yellowstone now than I had been in the past because of the slaughter of these bison and the Gray Wolves outside of the park area.<\/p>\n<p>I couldn&#8217;t help but think of that yesterday as I watched this bull grazing peacefully on Antelope Island. Enough said.<\/p>\n<p>For now.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/american-bison-images\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my American Bison photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n<p>Warning, this link has graphic images of bison being rounded up and dead bison: <a href=\"http:\/\/earthfirstjournal.org\/newswire\/2014\/02\/22\/yellowstone-begins-wild-bison-slaughter\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">http:\/\/earthfirstjournal.org\/newswire\/2014\/02\/22\/yellowstone-begins-wild-bison-slaughter\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Antelope Island State Park in northern Utah is a place where the &#8220;Buffalo&#8221; still roam unfettered by fences in a wild and majestic location.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":169002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[443,511,26],"tags":[4004,4463,4663,745,4350,4314,4142,3981,11978,4046,4032,373],"class_list":["post-14526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bison","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-american-bison","tag-bison","tag-bison-bison","tag-buffalo","tag-bull","tag-close-up","tag-davis-county","tag-desert-island","tag-portrait","tag-wildlife-photography","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-mia-mcpherson-3535.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-3Mi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":162561,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/11\/01\/in-celebration-of-national-bison-day-2025\/","url_meta":{"origin":14526,"position":0},"title":"In Celebration Of National Bison Day 2025","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Today, in celebration of National Bison Day 2025, I thought I\u2019d share two photos of these amazing and powerful mammals, which we almost lost to extinction.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;American Bison&quot;","block_context":{"text":"American Bison","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/bison\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"American Bison bull and the Great Salt Lake, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/american-bison-great-salt-lake-mia-mcpherson-0685.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/american-bison-great-salt-lake-mia-mcpherson-0685.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/american-bison-great-salt-lake-mia-mcpherson-0685.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/american-bison-great-salt-lake-mia-mcpherson-0685.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4455,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/02\/20\/bison-bull-grazing-on-winter-grasses\/","url_meta":{"origin":14526,"position":1},"title":"Bison Bull Grazing On Winter Grasses","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It tickles me to be able to photograph wild Bison.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;American Bison&quot;","block_context":{"text":"American Bison","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/bison\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"American Bison bull in winter grasses, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-winter-grass-mia-mcpherson-2049.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-winter-grass-mia-mcpherson-2049.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-winter-grass-mia-mcpherson-2049.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-winter-grass-mia-mcpherson-2049.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":37808,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/04\/02\/american-bison-bull-grazing-on-fresh-grass\/","url_meta":{"origin":14526,"position":2},"title":"American Bison Bull Grazing On Fresh Grass","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Seeing this Bison bull grazing on fresh grass isn't an unusual occurrence for me because I see them so often on Antelope Island but I also realize that there are quite a few people who haven't had the pleasure of seeing them in the wild like I do.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;American Bison&quot;","block_context":{"text":"American Bison","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/bison\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bison bull showing sun bleached winter coat, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-shedding-mia-mcpherson-1027.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-shedding-mia-mcpherson-1027.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-shedding-mia-mcpherson-1027.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-shedding-mia-mcpherson-1027.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6477,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/11\/01\/grazing-american-bison-bull\/","url_meta":{"origin":14526,"position":3},"title":"Grazing American Bison Bull","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I had an opportunity to photograph this Bison bull grazing on Antelope Island State Park with the mountains of Promontory Point in the background with just a small bit of the Great Salt Lake showing too.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;American Bison&quot;","block_context":{"text":"American Bison","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/bison\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"American Bison bull grazing in front of Promontory Point, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-promontory-point-mia-mcpherson-3253.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-promontory-point-mia-mcpherson-3253.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-promontory-point-mia-mcpherson-3253.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-promontory-point-mia-mcpherson-3253.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8122,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/04\/16\/spring-time-bison-bull-on-antelope-island-state-park\/","url_meta":{"origin":14526,"position":4},"title":"Spring Time Bison Bull On Antelope Island State Park","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The American Bison on Antelope Island are starting to show signs of shedding their winter coats and for awhile they will look a bit ratty.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;American Bison&quot;","block_context":{"text":"American Bison","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/bison\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"American Bison bull rubbing his belly on the grass, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-antelope-island-mia-mcpherson-4665.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-antelope-island-mia-mcpherson-4665.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-antelope-island-mia-mcpherson-4665.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-bull-antelope-island-mia-mcpherson-4665.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":43010,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/11\/06\/i-missed-national-bison-day-2016\/","url_meta":{"origin":14526,"position":5},"title":"I Missed National Bison Day 2016 &#8211; Whoops!","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I am so glad the American Bison were saved from extinction and that I see the Antelope Island State Park herd as often as I do.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;American Bison&quot;","block_context":{"text":"American Bison","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/bison\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Starlings and a Bison bull in snow on Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/american-bison-starlings-snow-mia-mcpherson-9089.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/american-bison-starlings-snow-mia-mcpherson-9089.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}