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Anniversary Trip to the National Bison Range, Part 3

As with any wildlife refuge, you never know from one trip to the next what animals you will see. On some trips, a person might only see a few animals. On others, there might be many. It helps to be extremely observant, but this still holds true even if you aren’t.

On the trip we took to the National Bison Range the day before our 40th anniversary, we saw lots of animals. Naturally, we saw plenty of bison, but that isn’t all that is in the refuge. As the following pictures show, there is more to the NBR than just barren hills and bison. 

First sighting of elk

Do you see the elk in this picture? the white rump is a giveaway, though the big cow elk had her head down as she grazed. This was taken in the lower reaches of the refuge and it also shows that the refuge isn't at all totally baren, even in the fall.

The bull elk

All told, we only saw about 15 elk, which would be a small herd. There were two bulls and the rest were cows. The bulls also know how to blend in, too. Here is one of the two bull elk and this bad boy was about 800 pounds. He also has a large rack of antlers that doesn't show up well.

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Written by Rex Trulove