PATCHES OF brittle, blond grasses slouch between tufts of mud and earth trampled by the massive buffalo (a colloquial term for the American bison). There are more than 90 of them this year. In a few months, there will be more—cinnamon calves, or red dogs as they are called for their color, will trot the fields munching the fresh spring shoots of prairie grass. Those visible today saunter by, perpetually grazing no matter the season. Their presence is humbling and not a usual Indiana scene. But at Kankakee Sands, near the town of Morocco (pop. 1,097) in Northwest Indiana, this herd has made itself right at home.
“Typically, the bison don’t need much in the winter,” says Olivia Schouten, the land steward and bison manager at Kankakee Sands. But she does monitor the amount of grass they are eating and the solar well for water, moving the animals between pastures periodically. Their hides are woolly now,
