Gotta get the salt off some how.
Everyone who grew up in the north knows the pain of rock salt on the roads. Sure, it prevents them from icing over, but it ruins your car’s paint, seemingly never washes off, and makes driving annoying from the constant sound of sprinkling crystals raining against your doors and windows.
But it looks like there’s at least one group of animals that like when the colder weather starts blowing through and the public works department starts treating the roads.
Bison.
America’s majestic fluffy cows were once nearly extinct but large populations now live in many western states with an estimated 20,500 plains bison roaming freely and 420,000 in commercial herds, according to US Fish & Wildlife Services.
While Yellowstone National Park is the most well-known place to see wild bison, there are plenty of other parks where you can get up close and personal with these giant beasts including Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Around 1,300 bison wander the parks 71,000 acres according to Travel South Dakota, and two of these creatures got very interested in a salt covered Tesla that was driving through the Wildlife Loop earlier this year.
The driver videos from inside his car while a bison approaches and gives some excellent commentary as he realizes that his precious car is in for one heck of a licking.
“Got a few buffalo on the road. Think we’ll stop right here… Okay. Shiza. He is licking the car…
This guy too is coming up. He is going to lick the car too. So, we have two buffalo licking the car.”
You can hear the nervous disappointment in this guy’s voice. Clearly, he went there to see some wildlife but he certainly doesn’t want his pride and joy getting licked or scratched by one of these guys.
The video continues to show various angles of the tongue bath, both from his phone and from the cameras placed around the vehicle, and honestly it’s super funny to watch the bison try and get every morsel of salt while the guy tries to keep calm.
At the end of the video you can see some pictures he took which show just how much licking took place and it’s quite honestly impressive.
I’ve had some bison slobber on my car before and can tell you it’s much harder to wash off than salt. Let’s hope this guy has a good car wash nearby.
You just never know what you’ll see when out looking at America’s wildlife.
