{"id":20590,"date":"2015-02-26T05:58:24","date_gmt":"2015-02-26T12:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=20590"},"modified":"2026-02-13T15:20:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T21:20:38","slug":"young-bison-fighting-and-a-big-dark-bull","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/02\/26\/young-bison-fighting-and-a-big-dark-bull\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Bison Fighting And A Big, Dark Bull"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"YoungYoung American Bison butting heads – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/640, ISO 400, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 165mm, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week while looking for birds on Antelope Island<\/span><\/a> I was fortunate to watch and photograph two young American Bison fighting by butting heads. This is play fighting because the breeding season isn’t until later in the year so the bulls are basically practicing. This “fight” didn’t get very aggressive, for the most part they bumped heads and pushed each other around.<\/p>\n

\"AmericanAmerican Bison feeling their oats – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/500, ISO 400, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 230mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The bison were too close to shoot with my Nikon D810 with my long lens even with the teleconverter taken off so I used one of my trusty Nikon D200’s with the Nikkor 70-300mm VR lens attached.<\/p>\n

On Antelope Island where the animals are used to human traffic even a shorter lens can have enough reach.<\/p>\n

These two young bulls didn’t spar for very long and certainly didn’t cause each other harm but it was fun to photograph them.<\/p>\n

A note about safety<\/strong>: I was inside a vehicle when I photographed these young bulls fighting and would not have stepped outside to get these shots.<\/p>\n

They might look tame when they are grazing but these are wild, unpredictable animals and safety should be of utmost concern around them.<\/p>\n

Too many times I have seen tourists get far too close to bison on the island and even walking among them like they were cattle but they aren’t and could cause serious harm.<\/p>\n

\"Big,Big, dark bison bull – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 400, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 180mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

A big, dark bull walked past while I photographed the other two bison fighting and he was bigger and darker than the other two. His coat was so dark it looked black and I couldn’t resist taking a few frames of him.<\/p>\n

Soon the American Bison<\/span><\/a> will start to shed and they will look tattered for a bit until their sleeker summer coats come in and also before long the bison will be calving on the island, I can’t wait!<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my American Bison photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week while looking for birds on Antelope Island I was fortunate to watch and photograph two young American Bison fighting by butting heads.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":169069,"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":[443,511,1022,26],"tags":[4004,4463,4663,11029,4314,890,11030,3381,11978,4743,4337,6235,4035,9186,4032],"class_list":["post-20590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bison","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-davis-county-utah","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-american-bison","tag-bison","tag-bisons","tag-bull","tag-bulls","tag-butting","tag-butting-heads","tag-desert-island","tag-fight","tag-fighting","tag-heads","tag-nature-photography","tag-spar","tag-wildlife-photography"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-fighting-mia-mcpherson-2606.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-5m6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18204,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/12\/27\/an-american-bison-head-on-in-the-snow\/","url_meta":{"origin":20590,"position":0},"title":"An American Bison Head On In The Snow","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday morning started out gray and cloudy on Antelope Island and I photographed a few Bison bulls grazing and charging each other.","rel":"","context":"In "American Bison"","block_context":{"text":"American Bison","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/bison\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"American Bison head on in the snow, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/american-bison-snowy-stare-mia-mcpherson-7528.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-snowy-stare-mia-mcpherson-7528.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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still falling.","rel":"","context":"In "American Bison"","block_context":{"text":"American Bison","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/bison\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bison bulls fighting in a snow storm, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/bison-fighting-bulls-mia-mcpherson-2-3355.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/bison-fighting-bulls-mia-mcpherson-2-3355.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/bison-fighting-bulls-mia-mcpherson-2-3355.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/bison-fighting-bulls-mia-mcpherson-2-3355.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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