Buffalo, Yelowstone National Park, Kay Witherspoon, Wildlife Art

Bison herds numbering in the thunderous thousands once roamed the American great plains.  Now, thanks to conservation efforts , this once endangered species is now roaming our National Parks and select great plains ranches again.  This particularly magnificent old bull was sited in the Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.  Although a highly social species, old buffalo are known to lead a more solitary existence, as this one seemed to be doing.  Still dusty from a roll in a nearby buffalo wallow, his shaggy coat bore the scars of  a probable attack by predators on his flanks.