As mentioned previously, I celebrated Doctoral Day last Monday by driving down through Delaware to the Colvine Bison Farm. The Collins family was very nice to me, and allowed me to wander around soaking up the buffalo vibes. Most of the bison they had there were fairly young, no more than a year or two old, and didn’t seem at all like the iconic buffalo that I had in my mind. If anything, they seemed “small.” Buffalo are supposed to be “massive.” Even so, some of these were coming in at half a ton.
I thought I’d been prepared for how narrow bison often look, but the actual experience was just weird, giving the animals an almost ghostly vibe as they stood there in the wind, like creatures in a funhouse mirror, or existing in only two and a third dimensions. Pictures don’t really capture this.
As I was preparing to leave, efforts were made for me to have my photo taken with Boom Boom. He’s the stud of the farm, and apparently more than a little cranky at times. For either or both of these reasons (I’m not really sure), he was off in his own little pasture. I’d only seen him from a distance (unlike the other animals who were curious about me, and came close when I stood by their fences). Boom Boom was lured over by filling a trough with corn, and as he approached he just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Yeah, this was what I’d come to see. This was a real, live, full-sized buffalo. Wow.
Best Doctoral Day ever!
