Animal Behavior

[Tsuga8]

And hundreds of bison, they do whatever they please.
No natural predators and up to 2,000, they’re in no hurry ever, or so it seems.

I worked a season in Yellowstone, surveying wetlands for amphibian larvae. We were in Hayden Valley early in the year, in waders up on a knoll surveying bison-wallows-come-wetlands, and had a group of female bison charge us. I didn't know I could move that fast in waders, running down one knoll, jumping a ditch that seemed too wide to jump, and scrambling up another knoll, only to turn back and see the group milling angrily about the spot we'd just vacated. We later learned they'd been between a coyote, our other coworkers a couple knolls over, and us, and they had calves. They must have decided we looked like the weakest link and decided they wanted some room between the calves and potential predators.

So, they certainly do do what they please, but they sure can hurry when they feel like it too. And I think they take a pre-emptive attack mentality when it comes to perceived threats, which I think they do at least perceive during calving season.

 

[stripperguy]

Wow, cool story and glad it wasn’t me!!
And I’m sure that those waders were easily cleansed of any soiling.
Fascinating to think that the herd made a decision as to which group to shoo away…

 

[ppine]

Some years ago I lived in Wyoming and did a lot of field work. It was amazing to live in a place with so much wildlife. Ermine, mink, badgers, porcupines were common. I saw foxes and badgers every week. Working around 1,000 antelope. Running with wild horses. The deer and elk herds were enormous in winter. It was a hard place to live but wildlife was amazing all the time.

 

[EL Tripper]

Since most of us spend a great deal of time outdoors I am sure you’ve seen some animal behavior you don’t really understand.
Here are a few of my examples:

We had a turkey nest next to our driveway with eventually eleven eggs ten of which hatched on the same day. Turkeys normally lay one egg a day and incubate for 28 days. How the heck do they all hatch on the same day. Does the last egg hatch and then going around to wake up the others?

I didn't read all of the comments to see if this was answered, but this one I know, asynchronous and synchronous hatching strategies. They are different strategies that if I remember correctly it is believed to mostly help ground nesters survive predators.

 

[lowangle al]

This moose showed up this morning to eat some watermelon that I threw out there for the magpies a couple days ago. It was under about ten inches of new snow and must have smelled it.

This confirmed my suspicion that the aggressive moose that drove us from our lunch spot one ski trip had smelled our granola bars.

 

[Alasgun]

I once felt pretty special to find these two, procreating on my boot tongue! They were still there the next morning too.

 

[ppine]

I used to work with wildlife biologists. Whenever I witnessed behavior that was hard to interpret,, I would ask them. It helped a lot. Nearly all the time, they signal their intent by their behavior. Then you know what is about to happen. It is the same with horses, mules and dogs. Learn to read the signs and it helps keep you safe.