Old Stallions
There’s nothing lonelier than an old stallion who has lost his band. He was looking down toward his old herd from Pilot Butte, outside Green River, Wyoming. Below him was his old band, with two young foals. One was a dreamy dun with long blond eyelashes and deep dark eyes, probably six months old, born in the spring and a very healthy girl.
We watched as the current band stallion headed off an interloper, a young bachelor. The stallion pranced out defiantly to meet him, head held high and snorting. One day the younger one, or one like him, would take some or all of his mares away. It’s a Darwinian process.
The old stallion was not the first we’d come across. Loners we encounter are either young bachelors who have been turned out of their band, or old stallions who have been challenged and lost their band. One of the old timers we saw in McCullough Peaks was skin and bones and probably wouldn’t survive the winter.
These are not the only loners on the prairie. We see a number of single antelope, their herd significantly thinned after last winter. They seem as curious about us as we about them. This is true of their domestic friends as well.
Finally, a note about the bear we encountered in the Pryor Mountains (see the McCullough Peaks post). It was quite possibly a black bear. They come in many colors, including this cinnamon colored one below. Looks a lot like a grizzly. We didn’t have time to interview him, so we will never know.
