Visiting The Bison At The Gunpowder Bison & Trading Company

I'm sharing photos today of my second trip to the Gunpowder Bison & Trading Company. The Gunpowder Bison & Trading Company is located at 1270 Monkton Road in Monkton, Maryland.

In my last post I shared photos of some of the bison and of the store that is on the premises but today we are just going to see the bison.

An adult bison bull (male) weighs approxinately 2000 pounds and an adult bison cow (female) weighs approximately 1000 pounds and they get that big by eating mostly grasses. They can also run up to 40 miles per hour so you have an approximate 0 chance of outrunning a bison.😉

Both the bull and cow have horns. I had to laugh when I saw how this photo came out. It looks like this cow is sticking her tongue out at me and my camera...lol!

Don't worry! The cow in this next photo is alive and well! She was just laying down!

On my first trip there were seven expectant cows and on this trip I found out that there were five calves born. It takes a bison calf up to 9 1/2 months to be born and weighs between 40 to 50 pounds at birth. When we first arrived I spotted three little calves but they ran down into a back pasture. I was hoping to get a photo to share and I did manage to get two photos. The first one is in the previous photo. In case you didn't see the baby, I made a little purple arrow to show where it is.

I know! What a sad excuse for a baby bison photo but, luckily, I did get one more and it's a little better...I think you would agree! It made me so happy that this little calf came up far enough and long enough for me to get this photo to share!😊

Most of the bison were laying/sitting down in their pasture. They have several pastures here that they switch the herd out in.

It is hard to believe that in the mid 1880's there were only around 325 wild bison left in the USA. It is sad to think how close they were to extinction. Luckily bison (in the USA) now number around 500,000.

I was glad to get back here and see the bison again and what a thrill it was to see the little calves! . On my first visit the bison were a lot farther away and the weather was not the best. On this visit there were a couple that were within 15 feet of me. They are fenced in by both a wooden and electrical fence so I was careful not to get too close.

Hopefully, I'll get back again soon to see how the babies are growing! Yep...gotta show that baby one more time! Pretty dang cute!😀