Are bison an easy target? One might think so…
Male bison can weigh upwards of 2,000 pounds and stand as tall as five to six feet, so they should be pretty menacing to potential predators. They also have the tools to be deadly themselves, with their horns being more than capable of goring another animal to death, or in some rare cases, pinning a Yellowstone National Park tourist to the ground.
I’m guessing that they are sometimes singled out by predators like bears and wolves because they are big and large, and not exactly the fastest animals roaming the Earth. If you’re going to exert energy for a hunt, a bison is a massive prize. And while they can run pretty fast, they generally just kind of mosey about. And when they have a calf in tow, they’re not in a position to run away anyways.
But all that to say, bison are definitely not an easy target… especially for wolves.
Bison vs Wolves
Yellowstone National Park is one of the few places where you can witness the high-stakes predator-prey dynamic between gray wolves and American bison. While wolves primarily rely on elk for food, certain packs in Yellowstone have adapted to hunt bison, setting the stage for some of the park’s most intense wildlife interactions. But because of their immense physical size, aggressive temperament, and tight social organization, bison are incredibly formidable prey.
A mature bull can weigh up to 2,000 pounds, making it highly dangerous for a wolf, who only weighs around 100 pounds, to engage one directly. As a result, wolves hunting bison almost always target calves, yearlings, or older, injured adults.
Wolves generally will attempt to prey on bison during the harsh winter months. Deep snow weakens the bison and limits their mobility, giving the lighter, pack-hunting wolves a tactical advantage. When wolves initiate an attack, they look for vulnerabilities in the herd’s formation. If they spot a sleeping or isolated calf on the outskirts of the group, they will try to separate it quickly before the adults can react. If the herd is on the move, wolves will harass them, looking for calves that lag behind or adults that stumble in the snow.
That must be why this pack of wolves decided to hone in on these three bison, with two of them looking to more fully grown and the other appearing to be younger bison. However, things didn’t go the way the wolves expected to, especially for the one that got a free flight through “Bison Airlines.”
At the very start of the battle, one of the wolves gets a bison horn right to the side, and is then thrown up into the air like a rag doll. Though the bison tried to “buck” it off its horns, it actually took two tries to get the wolf unstuck from the goring and sent up into the bright blue sky.
The wolf skids across the snow upon its hard landing, and quickly (somehow) gets up and runs away from one of the charging bison. Seeing one of their pack-mates brutally attacked didn’t stop the wolves from continuing to circle around the three bison, and one could assume that they were doing their best to steal the younger bison away.
You’ve got to give credit to the bison. They certainly look like they have this “ring of fire” defense down to a T. Every time a wolf tried to break apart the three of them, one of the bison would counter-attack while the other would strategically stay close to the youngest of the group.
It was actually a pretty impressive display of defense, and it appears that it was so good that the wolves slowly started to lose interest towards the end of the video.
According to the caption, the wolf escapes without serious injury:
“While the Lamar Canyon pack (5 wolves) attempted to hunt a bison calf one of the adult males, Dark Black, or 993M now that he is collared, was scooped up by a bison cow’s horn. The wolf was then somersaulted, with his legs and tail well above the bison’s head, and then thrown to the ground where he skidded several feet before jumping up and resuming the hunt.
Watch closely after Dark Black is tossed to the ground and you will notice that the second cow charges him. If the wolf had not immediately gotten to his feet he would most likely have been gored or trampled to death.
As it is, Dark Black, escaped this harrowing ordeal with no visible injuries, although he appeared stiff and sore for a couple of days afterwards. People who have watched wolves for two decades said that this incident between the wolf and the bison was the most amazing thing that they had ever witnessed. Particularly since the wolf survived.
The hunt attempt on the bison calf was unsuccessful but the pack did have an elk carcass the following morning.”
I think the bison set the tone with the wolves when it sent that first wolf cartwheeling through the blue sky, because the pack of wild animals didn’t seem to try very hard from that moment on. Even in some of nature’s ugliest moments, it can still manage to be beautifully cinematic.
Take a look:
