Mother and Red Dog

by Robert Bales

Title

Mother and Red Dog

Artist

Robert Bales

Medium

Photograph - Photo

Description

A baby buffalo, called a calf or Red Dog is born orange. They stand right after birth and will start eating grass at 1 month. Calves will nurse for 9 months.

Yellowstone is the only place in the United States where bison (Bison bison) have lived continuously since prehistoric times. Yellowstone bison are exceptional because they comprise the nations largest bison population on public land and are among the few bison herds that have not been hybridized through interbreeding with cattle. Unlike most other herds, this population has thousands of individuals that are allowed to roam relatively freely over the expansive landscape of Yellowstone National Park and some nearby areas of Montana. They also exhibit wild behavior like their ancient ancestors, congregating during the breeding season to compete for mates, as well as migration and exploration that result in the use of new habitat areas. These behaviors have enabled the successful restoration of a population that was on the brink of extinction just over a century ago. However, some Yellowstone bison are infected with brucellosis, a livestock disease that can be transmitted to wild bison and elk as well as cattle through contact with infected fetal tissue. To prevent conflicts with ranching and other activities outside the park, the National Park Service works with other federal, state, and tribal agencies to manage and develop policies for bison access to winter range outside the boundaries. Conservation of wild bison is one of the most heated and complex of Yellowstones resource issues. All of the interested parties bring their own wide-ranging values and objectives to the debate.
The American bison (Bison bison), also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds. They became nearly extinct by a combination of commercial hunting and slaughter in the 19th century and introduction of bovine diseases from domestic cattle, and have made a recent resurgence largely restricted to a few national parks and reserves. Their historical range roughly comprised a triangle between the Great Bear Lake in Canada's far northwest, south to the Mexican states of Durango and Nuevo Len, and east to the Atlantic Seaboard of the United States (nearly to the Atlantic tidewater in some areas) from New York to Georgia and per some sources down to Florida. Bison were seen in North Carolina near Buffalo Ford on the Catawba River as late as 1750.

Uploaded

June 9th, 2015

Colors

Embed

Share

Tags