The Roaming Buffalo of Catalina Island

It may sound absurd to some, crazy to others, and downright puzzling however you look at it, but Catalina Island is home to over 250 buffalo bison. The buffalo have free reign where they freely roam the entire island, from the south coast all the way to the north coast by the Two Harbors and along the borders around Avalon. Visitors to Catalina Island looking to have an encounter with buffalo are destined to achieve this goal if they look hard enough. The buffalo have been known to wonder into campgrounds and even down to the beaches and coves.

How the buffalo arrived at Catalina Island has never been fully established. It is said that the buffalo came to Catalina in the 1920s when Hollywood was at its height of old Westerns. One old western writer, Zane Grey (who has a hotel named after him over looking all of Avalon), fell in love with Catalina Island and wanted one of the westerns he wrote to be fully produced on the island. In order to make the island's interior appear as a scene out of the old west, dozens of buffalo were shipped over. It has been determined that Zane Grey's movie was never shot on Catalina Island after all, but the end result was 80 something years later the hundreds of Buffalo still roam the island. Today the population is set at a solid 250 buffalo.  In order to maintain the population at this consistent number, the Catalina Conservancy has decided to maintain this number and as the population swells the additional buffalo will be moved to the ranches in South Dakota.

Seeing the buffalo is fairly easy. The best way is to buy a ticket on one of the many land tours the island offers. The tickets can be bought at the ticket plaza in the center of Avalon or along the Green Pleasure Pier. Tours depart almost every hour. There are a variety of tours from an old 1950s converted city bus to air conditioned airport type shuttles to even an African Safari 4 wheeler caravan. The tours climb deep into the Catalina Interior often giving visitors breathtaking views of cliffs that fall hundreds of feet away into the ocean. Before long the tours are deep into the Catalina Interior and soon visitors will see the buffalo. The buffalo are intimidated by the tour vehicles and allow guests to get relatively close. Usually the buffalo are either standing around or laying down and sun bathing. These tours also offer glimpses at other wild life including the possibility of a bald eagle sighting, the island's red fox and an abundance of birds.

Visitors to Catalina Island who chose to camp will also have a likely chance of encountering buffalo as they are known to roam into the camp sites. Its always advisable to maintain a safe distance, especially if the buffalo are traveling with newborns and are in a protective mood.