Custer State Park, South Dakota

One of the "Begging Burros" of Custer
A small group of Bison
Pronghorn

While visiting the Black Hills, we took the opportunity to drive through Custer State Park. The main attraction for us was that the state park is home to the largest herd of free roaming Bison in the US. There are about 1500 bison in the the state's herd. The bison are counted and tagged annually.

As we drove through the park we found other attractions like the "begging burros". These donkeys approach passing cars begging for food. These burros aren't indigenous to the area, but were introduced in the 1920's by an entrepreneur who used them to carry tourists up Mt. Harney. When his venture failed in the 1930's, he let the burros loose. Now the burros come up to cars and people trying to get cookies, bread, or whatever.

The park is also home to pronghorns which are often confused with antelope. These animals can run at speeds of 40 mph for prolonged periods of time. The parks also has elk and bear...unfortunately, we did not see either.