Heartbeat Of The Land

On the shortgrass prairie of the Llano Estacado, American Bison favor warm season grasses. They graze on the move, rest and chew cud during midday heat, then lumber onward along watersheds and across ridges. They have instinctive abilities to find water and travel routes of least resistance. As a keystone species, their hooves aerate soil and disperse native seeds to help restore grasslands and biodiversity.

In ancestral memories, countless hooves of a herd in search of summer grazing grounds carves unmistakeable northbound highways into the life-sustaining abundance of grasslands on the American plains. Like a primordial pulse of nature, the thunderous sound and feel of a vast herd on the run triggers feelings of connection to the Earth and her creatures.

The near extinction of these iconic beasts on the circle of life not only broke the spirit of the native tribes on the plains, but also ravaged the living heartbeat of the land. Once numbering in the tens of millions—then falling to the hundreds in the late 19th century—conservation efforts in national parks, private lands, and Native American reservations have led to a significant comeback.

© Ilija Lukić 2026

Primordial Pulse

American Bison on Ned Hook Park rangelands north of Clovis NM