Bison can handle some harsh winter weather. In fact, they were built for it. Michael Hodges braved a winter blizzard in Yellowstone National Park to document just how hardy bison are when Mother Nature does her worst. A popular video series on Hodges’ Facebook page shows “ice bison” riding out a blizzard and finding ways to survive.
In one of the most poignant videos in the series, a bison stands in a warm geothermal creek near Soda Butte in Yellowstone, eating. It might be eating moss or lichen off the rock, or it may have shoved aside the snow and found some grass to eat. Meanwhile, the winds whip around the bison, howling hauntingly.
“It is said that in stormy weather, the mighty bison, unlike other animals, turns and faces the storm,” writes Hodges in a Facebook post sharing a video in the ice-bison series. “As I filmed the great animal in the blizzard, my hands and face numbed and my lens turned to ice. [. . .] Back in camp that night, tucked into my sleeping bag, I thought of the bison facing the storm, facing the blizzard high up there on the Yellowstone Plateau. The thought made me smile. Perhaps facing the storm is a lesson we can all learn. I like to think he is up there still, covered in snow in those howling winds. A reminder of endurance. Of a will to survive. Of our last wilderness.”
Watch bison ride out a blizzard in Yellowstone here: