The Unexpected Bison
June 2018

By Mary Ellen Brooks

​Mary Ellen is an adjunct professor of sociology and anthropology at Palomar College, San Marcos, CA. Some of her classes are held at Camp Pendleton Marine Base in nearby Oceanside. Here she writes about a unique sighting as she backtracked on her way to class one evening.
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It happened because of an oversight on my part. I had arrived at the classroom at Edson Range on Camp Pendleton only to discover that the handouts I needed for the evening’s class were still at home. The best solution was to make the 50-minute round-trip drive back to the office to prepare a new set. I was traveling across a long stretch of open highway toward the Air Station when I saw him, big as day in the full sunshine. There he was, standing almost motionless on a patch of dry grass, his jaw moving slowly down and up again, as he grazed peacefully. 

The cars speeding by in both directions did not bother him. He had seen humans many times before, and he seemed to know that these humans were no threat to him. Though his ancestors had been hunted nearly to extinction by humans in past centuries, he knew that these humans would not hurt him. He was safe, a protected species. 
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This solitary bison came from the same line that roamed the western plains centuries ago when the land was home to the native people of the Americas. His species had all but died out, save for a critical few that survived, found their way to safety, and began to breed and re-grow their population. Though he stood alone, that bison is part of a large herd that inhabits the hundreds of acres that constitute Camp Pendleton. Grazing alone for a while today, he stood as a magnificent, living monument to the stubborn persistence of the life force.

                                                                                                                  June 2018

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