{"id":40163,"date":"2016-06-24T04:27:01","date_gmt":"2016-06-24T10:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=40163"},"modified":"2026-02-14T07:05:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T13:05:15","slug":"american-bison-dust-bath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/06\/24\/american-bison-dust-bath\/","title":{"rendered":"American Bison Dust Bath"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BeginningBeginning of a bison dust bath<\/span><\/p>\n

I photographed a few birds yesterday on Antelope Island<\/span><\/a> but my favorite images that I created yesterday were of this American Bison dust bathing.<\/p>\n

\"AmericanAmerican Bison in a dusty wallow<\/span><\/p>\n

American Bison roll in wallows to groom themselves and remove loose fur.<\/p>\n

\"AmericanAmerican Bison bull in a wallow<\/span><\/p>\n

It is also thought that they take dust baths to chase off the flies that plague them during the warmer months of the year and that the dust left on their skin and fur may help prevent bites.<\/p>\n

\"AmericanAmerican Bison rolling in the dust<\/span><\/p>\n

What ever the reason, I find it interesting to watch the large animals roll around in the dust…<\/p>\n

\"AmericanAmerican Bison bull on his back in the wallow<\/span><\/p>\n

Rubbing their backs on the ground…<\/p>\n

\"AmericanAmerican Bison kicking up the dust<\/span><\/p>\n

And kicking up the dust in the wallow.<\/p>\n

\"DustyDusty Bison bull<\/span><\/p>\n

This was a fairly dark bull but its hindquarters look to be the same color as the dust he is bathing in.<\/p>\n

\"AmericanAmerican Bison and a cloud of dust<\/span><\/p>\n

These bulls are large, from 1500 to 2000 pounds and they roll around with great ease.<\/p>\n

\"DustDust bathing bison bull<\/span><\/p>\n

When the bull stopped rolling briefly the dust seemed to hang around in the air.<\/p>\n

\"AmericanAmerican Bison bull enjoying a dust bath<\/span><\/p>\n

And then he started to roll around again.<\/p>\n

\"AmericanAmerican Bison and dust<\/span><\/p>\n

And kicked up more dust.<\/p>\n

\"AmericanAmerican Bison covered in dust<\/span><\/p>\n

Even his dark nose had a layer of dust on it.<\/p>\n

\"AmericanAmerican Bison shaking off the dust<\/span><\/p>\n

And when the bison stood up he shook some of the dust off before he started to move away. The American Bison<\/span><\/a> dust bath at the wallow only lasted about one minute, I wish I could shower that fast some mornings! Especially when I am running late.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my American Bison photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n

Techs for these images: Nikon D810, f7.1, ISO 400, -1.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, shutter speeds between 1\/320 and 1\/640.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The American Bison dust bath only lasted about one minute, I wish I could shower that fast some mornings!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":169143,"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":[4004,4463,745,5212,4350,4314,4098,11978,746,594,5211,716,9070,4062,5209,5210],"class_list":["post-40163","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-bison","tag-bison-wallow","tag-buffalo","tag-bull","tag-desert","tag-desert-island","tag-dust","tag-dust-bath","tag-dust-bathing","tag-grooming","tag-island","tag-male","tag-wallow","tag-wallowing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/american-bison-rolling-mia-mcpherson-7374.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-arN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2467,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/06\/09\/bison-bull-dust-bath\/","url_meta":{"origin":40163,"position":0},"title":"Bison 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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 "American Bison"","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, 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2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":37938,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/04\/06\/low-light-american-bison-bull-portraits\/","url_meta":{"origin":40163,"position":5},"title":"Low Light American Bison Bull Portraits","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I was able to take a very nice series of low light American Bison bull portraits despite the lack of clear skies and sunshine on Antelope Island.","rel":"","context":"In "American Bison"","block_context":{"text":"American Bison","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/bison\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Resting American Bison bull close up at Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, 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