Well this was a bit of a surprise for Tatanka Tuesday! A new “red dog” has been born to the herd of bison at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.

While it isn’t entirely unusual to see one born late in the year, most are born in the spring and early summer. Those born earlier this year have already seen their coats transition to the typical dark brown of bison. This one probably wasn’t more than a couple of weeks old so it really stood out with that red coat. Plus, of course, it was the smallest – and cutest – of the entire herd.

It is a bit of a tough time of year to arrive in the world as winter has started to set in but here in Colorado, the season isn’t too extreme so it likely will be just fine.

Yup, you probably don’t want to be in this big boy’s way when he decides to walk through. 😉

Kind of a fun, different angle of this big bison bull. Ideally, as a photographer, you like to be eye level with your subject but that isn’t usually possible when photographing the bison at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.

Understandably, you have to remain in your vehicle and when shooting from a truck like mine, you are usually looking at least somewhat down at your subject. When I captured this shot a few weeks ago, the bull was coming up a hill toward the side of the road allowing for the perception that was down low and at the same level as him. That makes for a pretty cool capture.

When you have to scratch and you are a 2,000 pound bison bull, what are you to do? Roll in the dirt! 😉 That much weight rolling in dry dirt definitely creates a cloud of dust as you can see.

This big boy is one of the largest in the herd, something you can easily see, and judging from those horns, he has been battle tested many times.

Called wallowing, bison may do this for a few reasons. It helps them shed fur, gets rid of flies and, during mating season, serves as display of dominance.

When you have a big boy almost too close for your lens, you might as well zoom in and get the detail. That is what I did this past Sunday when this bull was right near the road. He wasn’t really doing much beyond scratching his butt on a tree so I took the opportunity to grab a close up, detailed shot.

I was immediately drawn to the eye and how you can actually see a tree across the road in the reflection. A conversion to high-contrast black and white really makes it “pop” and showcases not only the detail of the eye but also the fur and horn.

I always believe there is something about bison that almost begs to go with black and white (or sepia in this case). When I think about them, I can’t help but think back to the Old West when as many as 60 million of them roamed freely across much of North America.

By the late 1800s we had decimated the population leaving only several hundred. It was folly on man’s part but, thankfully, we realized the error of our ways and the bison is now a conservation success story.

In May 2016 the Bison became the official mammal of the United States, a fitting and long overdue honor.

Taken at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge near Denver, Colorado.

As we enter the depths of summer, the bison are keen to get rid of the last vestiges of their winter coats. One of the ways they do that is by taking a nice “dirt bath” – lying down and rolling. With as big as they are, they don’t exactly look graceful doing it but it does make for some cool scenes. This big boy got done wallowing, stood up and let loose with a big shake, sending a dust cloud flying.

One for Tatanka Tuesday taken this past weekend.

This massive bison bull was on the move and looking pretty intimidating as it walked toward me. The light was low so a conversion to black and white helps hide that and adds to the drama I think. As you can tell, his fur was looking a bit rough as he is shedding his winter coat.

It used to be we called these guys buffalo but that actually was incorrect. While they are part of the same family that includes the European and African buffalo, the bison is its own, distinct species. It is believed they were called buffalo by early North American explorers due to their resemblance to the Old-World species. Native Americans call them tatanka, a Lakota word that translated means “bull buffalo.”