This was one big boy to say the least! Clearly one of the elders of the herd, he was large and in charge as he walked right up to my truck. As he got closer, something clearly got his nose’s attention and he raised his head performed the flehmen response.
Many mammals will curl their lips and raise their head, inhaling deeply allowing them to get a better sampling of a particular smell that interests them – kind of like a human taking a big whiff to smell something.
It used to be we called these 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.”
