Beyond Your Backyard: Bison bison, an ode to a modern day mammoth

By Megan Benage

I promised a three-part series and a three part-series ode to nature is what I intend to stand by.

This series features raps about things in nature I find exciting, awe-inspiring, and frankly, worth rapping about. Part 2 could only highlight one of nature’s largest land mammals, the bison. (If you missed Part 1, you can get caught up here!)

These majestic animal relatives are part of our prairies. Someone told me once that you can’t have a true prairie without bison and you can’t have bison without a prairie. Nature is intricately intertwined and connected. All of the parts and pieces working together in ways we don’t fully understand or always pause to appreciate. Let this be a gentle reminder that nature is like a giant puzzle—each piece having a place and purpose. So let’s honor that because nothing, and I mean nothing, is more infuriating than a puzzle with missing pieces. Speaking of puzzle pieces, that brings me right back to our nature star of the day!

Oh hey I’m a Bison 🦬
Some people call me a Buffalo
It’s whatever works you know?
I’m a grazer which means I’m a prairie changer 

see that lead cow, that’s who we follow
I stomp and I wallow, compacting the soil
Oh look I’ve made a tiny pool 
Come on frogs, toads, salamanders, birds, and insects I’ve made you a new habitat niche
I carry seeds in my hide
No, I’m not down for a bison ride
Just plants y’all , helping them find their new home on the prairie once and for all

Walking through that prairie eating a delicious buffet, 
I do it pretty much every day chewing that grass, sometimes twice it’s just as nice 
When I get full and the bathroom urge comes upon me I respond to those needs
We all do it
Mine’s just called a bison chip 
My bathroom breaks fertilize 
I see how impressed you are by your eyes
Carbon, nitrogen one little trickle 
and I’m changing the cycle 

All these things I do
Creating micro habitat for birds, plants, pocket gophers, and the occasional shrew 
You see I’m a bison bison 
Baking powder of the prairie, Necessary for success 
Connecting all the pieces
I make sure all these other organisms keep rising keep rising 
Just like that sun on the prairie horizon

Read the final part of the ‘Ode to Nature’ series, Bumble bee Buzz, here.