
It does not matter, if you ride or drive long enough in beautiful, treed areas, you will have an animal cross your path. Naturally, the smartest thing to do in these situations is slow your speed and give yourself enough time to react in case you have a surprise visitor in the road. That means the less visual you have in front of you (like rounding a curve), the more cautious you should be. Also, the bigger the animal you might encounter, the more space you want for stopping distance.
What if you are already going slow and you round a curve to see a herd of buffalo or deer. Remember where you see one, there are others sure to follow. We have heard stories where people actually leave their vehicles or get off their bikes for close-ups. I hope we do not need to tell anyone in this group they are wild animals! We do not think like them, they do not think like us and they have different basic needs and instincts.
We even took roads not popular with a buffalo herd and were lucky enough to see hundreds in this herd. But slow speeds, staying on our bikes, alert and riding near large cars was a smart move – and an incredible one too. We got video! (Check it out on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLeO2xbPFrg)