Yellowstone National Park seems to be inundated with idiots these days and there is no other polite word for people who would walk up to a buffalo or put a buffalo calf in their SUV—idiots! There has been lots of back and forth on social media about the poor little buffalo calf and why couldn’t the National Park Service save the calf. Yellowstone National Park buffalo are carriers of a disease called brucellosis which can cause the female buffalo to abort her calf. Buffalo are prolific breeders and survivalists—the wolf population has done very little to decrease the buffalo herds prefering to feast instead on the easier prey, the elk. Buffalo are like cattle and at times lose their offspring or just don’t feel like being a mother that day—those calves die or are eaten by predators such as bear and wolves.
Burcellosis is contagious and can be contracted by domestic cattle herds living outside the park boundaries—thus the state of Montana and the USPS have a management plan. The link is an excellent article explaining how the herd is managed. Yellowstone Park does not have a fence—the buffalo are free to wander.
The Park made the following statement in answer to the social media uproar: “In order to ship the calf out of the park, it would have had to go through months of quarantine to be monitored for brucellosis. No approved quarantine facilities exist at this time, and we don't have the capacity to care for a calf that's too young to forage on its own. Nor is it the mission of the National Park Service to rescue animals: our goal is to maintain the ecological processes of Yellowstone. Even though humans were involved in this case, it is not uncommon for bison, especially young mothers, to lose or abandon their calves. Those animals typically die of starvation or predation.”
And then we have the idiots walking on Grand Prismatic Hot Spring for financial gain. Seems this bunch of morons has performed their tricks in other sensitive areas also. A warrant has been issued for their arrest.
OK—off my soapbox!
We were off to Billings Tuesday--
That darn scale—I know I am pounds lighter after my favorite hairdresser cut my hair in Billings Tuesday but that stupid scale doesn’t say so!! 
We had lunch with two very special people—Katie and Brooks Michael. Brooks was very accomodating, sleeping peacefully in his carrier the entire time—mom got to eat!!
Lora learning to make mud pies—don’t know what happened to her shirt!
Well, all you memory foam bed ads popping up in my various feeds—you can give up—we bit the bullet yesterday and purchased a Costco Comfort Grande 14” Gel Memory Foam mattress. We researched and read, then researched some more. One of the sites made an interesting statement, “Lower priced mattresses – namely those $600 to $1500 – often rate similar to or better than more expensive options.” It’s amazing how beds now come in boxes—we opened the packaging and let the mattress expand overnight. Tonight will be the first test—the dang thing is so tall we may need a stepladder!!!
Michael has been a mechanic today for us and a friend—he didn’t do so well with our Kawasaki mule—he took it to the mailbox to try it out after working on it for most of the morning. The mule quit on the cowboy forcing him to make that 1/2 mile hike up the hill to the house!!!
It was mowing (gorgeous day), weed spraying and laundry for me today—oh, joy!
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People are beyond stupid and they don't realize that wild animals are going to dye and be eaten by other wild animals that need to survive. Nature is violent and cruel according to the definition of how humans feel about it. But it is nature's way of taking care of everything. Those same idiots would be screaming bloody murder if their meat became contaminated by the burcellosis. You just can't fix stupid but a $135 fine sure doesn't fit the crime in my book. I could rant on forever also. I'll stop. Mud pies - sooo cute.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update on the reasons for the calf being put down. The result is still sad, but the reasoning unavoidable. I only need a trim and I'm hymning and hawing about going to get it done - I too have a great stylist, but she's in SoCal :-( Darling babies!!
ReplyDeleteWe had to test for brucellosis in our goat herd... nasty thing... females carry it and their babies inherit it... I am thinking a blood test on the goats gave us the results in a week or so.... Way too bad about that buffalo calf.
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