Back to the Pleistocene

Another thread asked the question about where to hunt 100 years ago. I didn't want to go off topic so I thought I'd start a new one. I'd like to hunt Colorado about 100,000 years ago. I am and have been a bison freak since I was just a little boy, say five or six. I would love to hunt Bison Latifrons.

This also may be controversial, but I'd support bringing back Bison Antiquus, Priscus, Occidentalis and etc. I'd like to hunt Cervalces scotti and lots of other critters that are gone.

I'd also like to hunt Megaloceros giganteus in Europe.

If I was a retired billionaire, I'd also travel the worlds museums and collections putting together a "Boone and Crockett" type record book of all the Pleistocene mega fauna. I'd really like to see the largest tusks ever found, mammoth, mastodon, or whatever.

Maybe we can get some DNA from this beast.



http://www.adn.com/article/fairbanks-scientists-stunned-find-intact-40000-year-old-steppe-bison

James Riley said:

This also may be controversial, but I'd support bringing back Bison Antiquus, Priscus, Occidentalis and etc. I'd like to hunt Cervalces scotti and lots of other critters that are gone.

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Yeah, as controversial as Bison bison is, I don't see that happening.

RobG said:

Maybe we can get some DNA from this beast.

http://www.adn.com/article/fairbanks-scientists-stunned-find-intact-40000-year-old-steppe-bison

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Every time I see that photo I get jealous. I wonder where the other horn sheath is. I'd be digging the mud all around where I found that baby. A great looking bull! Someday I want to get up to AK to see Blue Babe.

100,000 years ago would be quite the challenge.
No waterproof clothing, no waterproof boots, no sleeping bags, no insulated anything, no prepared food, no scopes, weapons made from sticks and rocks.
I doubt many of us would go back without all the modern conveniences we enjoy now.

100,000 years ago I'd be traveling the river bottoms of North America and trapping 7 foot beavers

(Get your mind out of the gutter)


.

A few years ago I met a guy hunting on the crest of the Gravelies and he showed me a spear head that looked like a Clovis point to me. On slow work days I imagine these Clovis people hunting this ridge while glaciers covered the valleys below. In my daydream they are arguing about whether the lack of game is due to dire wolves, or unregulated hunting and climate change. Guess who was right .

Wish the guy would have given the point to an archeologist. I would like to know the story.

James-

Have you read Steven Rinella's book "American Buffalo" ?

It sounds like you would find it interesting.

http://www.amazon.com/American-Buffalo-Search-Lost-Icon/dp/0385521693

Found this old buffalo skull sticking out of a sluffing river bank in Central Montana. I dug around for the sheaths, but only found a few small bones.

I have also found a few sheaths near Dillon while looking for Sage Grouse leks.

My dad and I have a rather large collection of artifacts and every time I look at them, I am amazed at the fact that the Clovis people took down full-sized mammoths, giant short-faced bear (arctodus simus), and giant sloth (as well as the bison) with just a piece of stone and a shaft. Granted, I would imagine the animals were overwhelmed by numbers of hunters, but it is still pretty amazing to me. Interesting thread. I would probably like to tackle one of those giant short-faced bears myself, but I would have something different than a stone point!

Oak: Yeah, if we can't even get Bison bison on par with other wild game then it would be a tough row to hoe with extinct species brought back. I can dream though.

Gr8bawana: I'd do it in a heart beat. That's pretty much how I do my gut checks anyway. I might miss the womens though.

Brookie: I did read Rinella's book. Thanks, though. We have comm on Link'd in. His story about finding that skull on his hike in the lower 48 compelled me to run him down. Kind of an honest book without all the “I'm a tough guy” clap trap. I like reading about the skulls that members here have found. I'd love to canoe the Missouri some summer.

Theat: Great skull! I find the bone last forever in the mud while the sheaths rot away post haste. On the surface, however, bone rots away pretty quick while the sheaths last for damn near ever. Permafrost though; you get the best of both worlds. Someday I hope to get up to Fairbanks and check out the mines (if they'd let me). I did work in Juneau one summer and saw a beauty on the wall in the Red Dog Saloon. I have a pic of that somewhere.

Here's a few of mine:





Young calf:

Not a relic from the Pleistocene, but I found this one off-trail in Yellowstone.

RobG said:

Not a relic from the Pleistocene, but I found this one off-trail in Yellowstone.

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Great picture, RobG! (Just to be clear, mine aren't Pleistocene either.) Your picture of a Yellowstone bison skull reminds me of a story.

One spring I saw a Silver Tip twisting a hind quarter of a huge old bull on the far bank of the river in the Hayden Valley. I decided to return in the fall, after the scavengers had done their work and, quite illegally, swim the river and steal the skull. That fall I ate at Old Faithful and after dark I started to drive over to the valley. After West Thumb I came upon a huge old bison bull standing right in the middle of the road facing me in my car, eyes glowing in the head lights. He refused to move. When I went right, he stepped in my way. When I went left, he stepped in my way. I finally manged to slip by him, going over the edge a way.

When I got to the river the fog had set in and there was no moon. It was black. I got naked and stood on the shore getting ready to swim when a herd of bison moved in around me grunting in the dark. Lots of them. I couldn't see them.

Anyway, I took that as an omen to leave the skull. On further reflection, and as I got older, I came to understand that I own thousands of bison skulls and tons of huge elk sheds and winter killed elk skulls. I just store them in Yellowstone and I can go see them any time I want. As Americans, with all our public lands, we can do that!

There is a birth of Heart through weathered stone
Beneath the raptor’s nest alone
It belly crawls it’s way back home
Over sands where you once roamed

I caught that Heart in my glowing eyes
On its way to yours demise
You see it too, now from the skies
Telling itself "I’m special" lies

Your brown peace eyes, on Raven loan
Your meat and horn and brain and bone
Pray: "Leave my skull on the Yellowstone!"
To feed the seeds that we have sown

Well it must have heard our silent cries
For what that Silver Tip had shown
For you maintain your Earthen ties
And with the seeds the Heart has grown

I love taking cool stuff home like everyone else, but I'm glad people have to leave the stuff in the Park so I can see it too.

New York would have been fun to hunt 100,000 years ago.. These are from a dig in New York..

danr55 said:

New York would have been fun to hunt 100,000 years ago.. These are from a dig in New York..

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Awesome bull. Looks like a B. Priscus (Steppe Bison).

Here's a Latifrons. I've seen the cast mount at Idaho State. These animals are made for my day dreams. The Idaho bull is over seven feet, tip to tip. Your "Irish Elk" (Megaloceros giganteus) lived in Europe and could be over 12 feet from tip to tip!



"Bison dig Marie Hopkins001" by Abbaby - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...diaviewer/File:Bison_dig_Marie_Hopkins001.jpg