Some of the original European artists to come out here painted pictures of the Western plains covered in bison (aka buffalo). At one time, there were millions of these large, woolly, front-loaded herbivores, but they came close to extinction following the hunting parties in the mid-nineteenth century, partly for food, partly for sport and partly in the wars against the Native American to deprive them of a key food source.
Nowadays, the bison are making a comeback and it is great to see the herds and their calves slowly marching and munching their way across the plains in Yellowstone, rolling in the dust to get rid of insects and occasionally butting each other.
One sight which will always stay in my memory is of a bison on a cold morning warming himself in the steam from a thermal pool, just like a bison spa day!
