Lord of the Plains

Buffalo (I know but I prefer the traditional name) from the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge in SW Oklahoma.

Nice ones; for an interesting comparison, have you ever stopped at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center between Anchorage and Seward to see their larger (!!?) cousins up there?....always find it hard to believe that they come in a larger version than the plains guys

I lived in Alaska in the late 60s and early 70s. I finished HS in Fairbanks and attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks afterwards. My first darkroom was lost in big flood in Fairbanks in 1967. Even though I've been gone for many years, Alaska never leaves your memory. It's a magical place and it has some LARGE animals. The Moose are bigger than elsewhere. There is a sub species of the Grizzly Bear called the Kodiak Bear on (oddly) Kodiak Island which is a huge bear. I saw one stuffed in roadhouse in Glenallen (I think - it was a long time ago). It was standing on it's back legs and had it's front legs extended out over the dining room. My memory was that the thing was every bit of 10 feet tall with it's arms up like that, huge and intimidating even as a trophy.

I last visited Alaska about 10 years ago and we went to the Wildlife Conservation Center but the Wood Bison program had not yet begun at the time. I wish it had - I would have loved to see those guys. Here are a couple from the Conservation Center - a Caribou (Reindeer) bull with a massive rack and a very Alaskan animal, the Musk Ox.