4/05/2009

Bison

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


deep winter -
a bison mourns for his

dead mother


In winter, they move over the prairie in groups of 20 to 30 females and calves, all family members, with one BIG MOTHER leading the herd.
When one animal dies, they mourn for about 30 minutes, rubbing horns and heads ... kicking it gently with their hooves ...
..............................................and then move on.




comments from HH

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


CLICK for more photos
Bison
is a taxonomic group containing six species of large even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Only two of these species still exist: the American bison (B. bison) and the European bison, or wisent (B. bonasus), each with two subspecies.
The American and European bison are the largest terrestrial mammals in North America and Europe.
Wallowing is a common behavior of bison.
© More in the WIKIPEDIA !



bison mating season
kigo for late summer



Cow, Bull, Ox (ushi) as kigo



. . . Read my Haiku Archives 2009


:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

4 comments:

anonymous whc said...

This is a striking haiku, Gabi. Thanks for the comment on it too. I remember, as a kid in Wyoming, I used to see these roam free on the land... huge... beautiful animals. We had moose too and Grizzlies. Wyoming was a challenging place.
Anyway... nice haiku!
D.

anonymous whc said...

Maybe the world leaders at the G20 and NATO should do that, too. Mourn the crisis for about half an hour (admit who did what wrong), rub horns (blame each other a bit) and heads (brainstorm for solutions), trade antlers (avoid protectionism), and then move on to the next item on the agenda.
Have never been to Wyoming, but read a lot about it as a child studying geography. Maybe one day ...
E.

Anonymous said...

I didn't realize they did that. The great slaughter in the nineteenth century would have been incomprehensively traumatic for them.
L.

anonymous said...

I think its heartbreaking. Thank you Gabi.
Of course we don't have Bison here, and they are seldom seen on TV. So this is all new to me.
From Australia.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .