I came across another one of those inspirational stories on social media the other day. As I've stated in the past (see my post "The Leader of the Pack"), many of these stories are more legend than fact. However, I thought this one was worth sharing. It is said that the American Bison, the largest terrestrial animal in North America, is the only animal that turns and heads directly into the wind during a storm (see the picture below as well as a video here). These majestic creatures know that by turning and facing the storm, they will actually get out of the storm quicker. Other animals apparently turn the other direction to walk away from the prevailing winds. The social media post used this "fact" (again, I don't know whether it's true that the bison is the only animal that turns and faces the wind) to instruct the reader to "embrace your inner bison and run toward the storm!" If true, it's a beautiful analogy. And even if it's not completely true, it's still a beautiful story. Whenever we encounter difficult challenges in our lives - and we will - rather than turning away from them, we should face them head on. When faced with a storm, don't run away. Don't avoid it. Don't hope it goes away. Take it head on. Be strong and face your challenges. Be like the mighty bison!
You started me down the rabbit hole! Quick check on Snopes led to "Paul Stoy, a professor of agriculture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, agreed, adding that calling a bison facing into a storm an "instinctive" behavior is a "bit of a stretch" for practicality's sake. Even if a bison were walking into a storm, the amount of time it could shave off wouldn't be worth the amount of effort it would take to move during a blizzard. Stoy told Snopes:
ReplyDeleteTo fit the technical description of a blizzard, noting that all snowstorms aren't blizzards, winds have to be traveling at least 35 mph and can last a few hours. Assuming that [bison are] not walking through snow at a rate of more than 3 mph – and probably far more slowly – they might be able to save themselves a few minutes of blizzard conditions, but I'd hesitate to suggest that this would be at all energetically favorable versus just taking it easy during the snowstorm because walking upwind through snow would incur a large energetic expense.
"A more plausible explanation is that they may face a storm more often than other animals because their heads and shoulders tend to be very well covered by fur," Stoy added"
Thanks for the additional context! It's still an amazing metaphor and one that we should all take to heart!
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