Sometimes bison just need to get a little steam out by lowering their horns and stirring up dust. That’s at least how it worked out between these two beasts in Yellowstone National Park.
There’s probably not a better place on the planet to see bison in action than Yellowstone. The national park is home to around 4,000 to 6,000 bison, and in case you didn’t know, it’s actually the largest bison population on public land. The beasts roam freely throughout Yellowstone, just like their ancient ancestors.
And they take up plenty of room.
I say that to point out a bison’s size before we get any further. Fully grown male bison stand at 6 feet tall and can weigh around 2,000 pounds at their heaviest. Fun fact: that’s a full ton. So when these one-ton creatures go at one another, it is truly a heavy-weight match up.
And catching two going at each other is more likely to happen during mating season, while male bison want to show their female counterparts that they are “tough enough” and worthy to be a romantic partner.
It’s possible that this video was taken during the back end of the bison rut. The mating season generally runs from June through September, though it can stretch outside of that timeline. The account that shared the video – which is ran by Patrick and April Holm – admitted that they didn’t post the video initially. That’s only because the bison weren’t the initial focus of the footage (more on that in a second).
But they sure were when the dust started flying. Much of the bison herd in the frame was spread out… except for two males that were locked horn-to-horn in a literal face-off. It was brute force on display from both sides, and neither of them were letting up.
That is until one of the bison realized it was overmatched, and decided to tap out. The large land mammal that was on the losing side of the skirmish even appeared to lose a chunk of its fur. I’m no expert on bison combat, but based on my observation, once the bison lost some face fluff… it was ready to waive the white flag.
And to think that “Holm on the Range” wouldn’t have gotten this video if it weren’t for an eagle in the nearby area. According to the Holms, they were videoing a baldie in Yellowstone National Park when this duel broke out and commanded the camera’s attention:
“I found this bison fight that I never posted. I found it hiding at the end of a video of an eagle and I flipped to the fight. Exciting to have some rut action in November!”
Yeah… like I said earlier, the rut generally runs from June to September, so I hope “Holm On The Range” doesn’t hold his breath waiting for rut action in November.
But as we’ve seen time and time again, nature doesn’t always play by the rules. I’m not saying that a bison fight like this won’t happen in November and through the rest of the winter months in Yellowstone. It’s just that the peak of the bison rut has actually already passed.
