Snow. In Yellowstone National 
Park, the accumulated flakes of 
winter precipitation exert a strong 
influence on the movements of the 
buffalo herds. Mixed herds, bull 
groups, and solitary bulls are 
increasingly confined to wintering 
valleys as the snow deepens. The 
animals can scrape away the snow to 
depths of at least three feet to get at 
the forage beneath. Relatively secure 
in the valleys, they pass the winter 
rummaging through the snow, 
obtaining enough food to carry them 
over to spring. 
There are winters, however, when 
some buffalo don’t survive. 
Normally, buffalo can plow through 
heavy snow, doing so when they move 
to another valley after having 
exhausted the forage in one area. 
Mixed herds can be seen traveling in 
line, plunging trenches in the snow. 
But the snow sometimes proves 
impassable. When this happens, 
buffalo mortality rises as the food 
supply of the trapped animals runs 
out. The severe winter of 1964-65 
saw snows that blocked a group of 
buffalo in a slough in the Bechler 
Meadows. Eighteen of the animals 
starved to death. 
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