So just how much snow have we had this winter? December for the West Yellowstone area had the second most snowfall on record. While January was more mild, February and early March seem to be trying to keep pace with December’s efforts and I’d estimate at least 4 feet of packed snow through out most of the region. This has made it tough on ungulates such as bison. I recently snowshoed into Yellowstone searching for bison. I can’t afford to spend money on snowcoaches as they’re quite expensive, so snowshoes certainly do the trick once the bison have moved into areas I can hike. This cow bison had plowed the snow out to the ground level in order to reach what meager brown grass she could find. Meanwhile I’m standing on top of the snowpack. I tried for a lower angle but getting too low just meant the bison wasn’t very visible behind the deep snow. She is standing with her head raised here, having plowed into about 4 feet of snow. As always, I kept a good distance away and, while this was shot at 400mm, I also cropped the image as well. No need to get too close to such large mammals, for my own safety but also because these animals are walking a very fine line for survival right now. Any additional stress only causes them to unnecessarily burn more calories.