Bison in Denver

Figure 1. Bison, Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, CO.

Wildlife, especially large mammals, is thought to live in remote areas. People are usually not associated it with big cities.

There are always exceptions. About 15 minutes away from downtown Denver in Colorado, you can see free-roaming bison. This place is established as Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, considered one of the most polluted places in the US before. After the extensive clean-up, this places is pretty much restored to its previous status and open to visit. One of the experiment is the reintroduction of bison. Although there are fences around the refuge to prevent bison leaving here and creating traffic hazard, the roaming area is still very large and you may not see them during your visit. So they can still be considered as wildlife or free-roaming. They thrive and exceed the carrying capacity. A round-up of 27 bison has been done in December, 2013. There are 60 bison now.

Bison is really the magnet and many people come here to see a bison. It is bizarre to see bison so close to a big city (and 10 minutes from Denver Airport) as you can see Denver skyline here, but it is certainly fun. Visitation increases every year and it hits over 300,000 in 2013. It is expected that more than 1 million visitors would come here in the near future.

In addition to bison, mule deer, white-tailed deer and black-tailed prairie dog are also easily seen here. In winter, you may see bald eagles, which is part of the reason this wildlife refuge is established here.


Figure 2. Bison, Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, CO.