People from across the country head to Utah‘s Antelope Island to take part in one of the few volunteer buffalo roundups in the U.S.(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Antelope Islands bison are descendants of a dozen buffaloes brought by barge by ranchers William Glassman and John Dooly in 1893. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
These plains bison are the shorter relatives of the wood bison. Still, the males weigh up to 2,100 pounds and stand as tall as 6 feet at the shoulders. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
The horseback riders must sign a liability waiver given the rough ride ahead, which involves three days of freezing temperatures, choking dust clouds and a lot of soreness. But says one participant upon seeing these massive, iconic symbols of the American West: The most overused adjective in the English language is awesome.’ But there is no other way to describe this. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Advertisement
Most of the hundreds of bison will ultimately be herded into pens for medical checkups. Some will be sold at auction while a few of the older bulls too ornery to herd or be put in trailers will be culled. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)