In our four summer drives up and down the Alaska Highway in western Canada, we have never failed to see herds of Wood bison (or mountain bison) grazing in the broad margins along the roadsides. Some herds number in the dozens of adults and calves. Wood bison (Bison bison athabascae) can be seen anywhere from the Muncho Lake area north to where the highway weaves back and forth across the boundaries of British Columbia and Yukon, and from there on to somewhere south of Watson Lake. These magnificent animals seem to value the areas beside the highway since those areas are clear of trees with plentiful grazing. Bison also take advantage of those cleared areas to create wallows in the soil where they roll around in the dust to rid themselves of insect pests.

The wood bison is a subspecies of the somewhat smaller American bison (Bison bison). It is the heaviest and longest extant land animal in North America. Large males, like the one seen here, have been recorded to reach 11 ft (3.35 m) in length, a height of 6.59 ft (201 cm) at the withers and a weight of 2,600 lb (1,179 kg). (Source: Wikipedia)

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