Baby Bison Born in County Park
TULARE, April 20. If counting bisons was one of the tasks of the census enumerator s they could chalk up another one for Tulare county. A bison calf born recently to a bison cow at Mooney Grove, the Tulare County Park between Visalia and Tulare, brings the county’s total to four. Weighing about the same as a Jersey calf and closely resembling one. the new addition appears a healthy specimen.
The infant bison has been attracting major portion of the attention of the visitors and the other animals are displaying signs of jealousy. The peacocks especially have been displeased, squawking derisively as they are passed by. The mother bison, however, appears to think that as it should be turning her head proudly toward visitors with a happy expression, which plainly says, “Yes, sir, that’s my baby.”
The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles California May 4 1930
Cervus Family at Home. (extract)
A Bison Flirt Bison,
Mr. Nadeau got from Arizona and Yellowstone Park, a fine bull and three females. Mary, one of the lady bisons, took a fancy to the photographer and insisted in getting in front of the earners for a close-up. Finally Mr. Bison drove her away and told the cameraman what he thought about alienating the affections of Mary, fickle, light-minded creature that she is. He (the bison) grumbled and butted a fence pillar, but finally let it go with a warning.
Great Falls Tribune
Great Falls Montana May 9 1930
Bison Range Office and Records Burned
Special to The Tribune. MISSOULA. May 8. Records of the national bison range northwest of here and records and personal property of Warden Frank Rose were destroyed by a fire which razed the of flee building near Moiese. It is not known how the fire started. The herbarium containing a thousand plants and the records of forage and palatability for bison, as well as other records collected since the range was established in 1909, were burned Warden Rose lost personal property to the value of $1,500 and also many valuable documents concerning his work.
Great Falls Tribune
Great Falls, Montana May 26 1930
50 Buffalo Calves Will Augment Herd on Federal Reserve
Special to The Tribune
MISSOULA, May 25. Newcomers are arriving at the bison range these days, with the 1930 calf crop beginning to make its appearance. Warden Frank Rose said while in the city. It is expected that there will be about 50 bison calves this month to augment the several hundred head now roaming the range.
The bison bulls do not attain full maturity for eight years, while it takes the bison cows about four years to reach their growth. The animals are in excellent condition, fattening up on green grass, and no loss in the reproduction is expected.
Four bison were killed to be sent to St. Ignatius for the barbecue during the big celebration, Mr. Rose said. These animals were in fine shape and should form a succulent repast for the visitors to the coming event.
Moving picture men from the department of interior were on the range Thursday, seeking wild life pictures, but found the procedure rather difficult, the elk of which there are 150 and the bison remaining distant in the mountains.
The Capital Times
Madison Wisconsin July 1 1930
Wonders of the World
A Discrowned King
That “blessing brighten as they take their flight, is proved by the romantic history of the American bison, often incorrectly called the buffalo.
This picturesque beast, with his huge hump, big head, powerful horns, and long, shaggy beard, was once king of the western plains. In the graphic phrase of the old Indians, the prairies war then “all one robe” covered with the immense furry bison herds as with a blanket. Many Indian tribes lived on “buffalo meat, without lessening these herds perceptibly. The wolves skulked behind to devour a wounded or dying bison but did not venture near the horns of his brother.
Sometimes early settlers crossing the plains were obliged to wait several days or even a week to let a herd pass. There was no such thing as cutting across the path of that “murderous dust-cloud that was full of eyes.
Then the tragic part of the bison’s story began. As the western plains were settled, the huge beasts were mercilessly slaughtered. Old men who then traveled through the west, remember that every acre of the plains was strewn with bisons bones and huge heaps, high as haystacks, were piled beside the railway tracks to be carried east and used as a fertilizer. A beautiful “buffalo” skin sold for a dollar, end only lumbermen and other frontiersmen would wear such common overcoat.
When the bisons were almost extinct, foresighted persons began to try to save them, just as the American people are now waking up to the need of preserving our wildlife and forests.
The Canadian Department of Agriculture has crossed them with domestic cattle and produced a hybrid called the cattalo. It is found that this hybrid is immune to the terrible Texas cattle fever. A thriving herd of the cattalos now live in Alberta. The thrifty Canadians are also trying to cross the bison with the yak of Central Europe. So ends the strange history of the once royal old bison.
Great Falls Montana Jul 14 1930
Fox Film Company Taking Movies on Federal Bison Range
Special to The Tribune. MISSOULA. July 13. A Fox film party will be on location at the Moiese bison range headquarters Monday and from there will go into the field, where the big beasts roam, to take reels and reels of pictures. It is expected that the Fox moving picture party will spend four days on the national bison range. Scenes are to be taken appropriate to a picture being made by the Fox people. There are hundreds of bison to be included, and there are elk, antelope and other game at hand. And if the Fox folks want an old-fashioned bison chase by Indians, there’s plenty of the Salish and Kootenai Indians willing to work.
Great Falls Tribune
Great Falls Montana Aug 26 1930
Bison Not Likely to Suffer From Drouth, Is Report
Special to The Tribune.
MISSOULA. Aug. 25. Bison on the national bison range northwest of her will not suffer from drouth conditions. Warden Frank Rose announces. The bison have ranged through the summer on the north side of the reserve, where they are still located. Later they will be moved to the south side, which has sufficient forage to carry them through the winter months. It will not be necessary to feed any of the bison this winter, the warden says. Natural forage will provide for all of their wants until the new grass crops up in the spring.
The herd is in splendid shape, the older animals fattening and the calves growing fast. So far no plans have been made for the disposal of any of the bison.
An artesian well was struck at 150 feet at the bison range headquarters, eliminating water worries there. It will not be necessary to do any pumping in the future is a result of striking this well. The range is well watered and the various small springs scattered about the reserve are still providing water for the animals.
The Orlando Sentinel
Orlando, Florida Nov 9 1930
Are there any real buffaloes In America, and what Is the difference between a bison and a buffalo?
The American bison, more familiarly known as the “buffalo,” has been insured against extermination by the United States and Canadian governments through the establishment of ranges on which they are allowed to roam unmolested by man. There are three centers of wild bison the Yellowstone park, the Montana bison range and northern Athabasca. With the preserved herds in Yellowstone, Montana, and Wichita ranges, together with the Canadian range and animals in captivity, there were 3.453 full-blooded bison in America in 1913. In 1889 there were only 835 wild and 256 captive head, as compared with the herds of thousands and even millions which roamed the plains before the coming of the white man to America.
The Evening Sun
Baltimore Maryland Dec 16 1930
Natures Notebook Frank Thone- Bison
Whenever you spend a nickel you pass over the counter a little medallion commemorating two bred-in-the-bone Americans: on one aide an Indian and on the other a buffalo, or, more strictly speaking, a bison. It is highly appropriate that these two Early Americans should be thus recognized on what is the most thoroughly American of coins – though it is rather a pity that their images could not have been on the more colorful bronze.
The bison should not be called a buffalo, for that name by right belongs to the smooth-hided, long-horned beasts of the warmer parts of the Old World, from the Cape buffalo of South Africa to the carabao of the Philippines. But the bison has been so named for so long, and the name so fixed by the immense vogue of that old frontiersman and showman of a former generation, Buffalo Bill, that it is unlikely that the error will ever be corrected.
Although the bison is so thoroughly American, he was, like many other Americans, even the American Indians, an immigrant from the Old World. The great Eurasian continent was the original home of both bison and Indian, and they came here by the same route, the old land bridge that once united Asia and Alaska.
Until the World War there used to be a few hundred survivors of the Old World bison species, mainly in the Baltic region and in the Caucasus Mountains. In classic times and during the middle ages the European bison, or wisent, was very common. But even the few survivors were wiped out during the war and the revolutionary disturbances that followed so that now there are only about sixty wisent left alive. If these fail to breed, the species will join the dodo and the giant Irish elk, and the only bison left in the world will be those that live in America.
Takes Part in Supervised Expedition in Arizona Forest. By the Associated Press. PHOENIX, Ariz., Dec. 18. Mrs. J. G. Tarbell, Phoenix, one of the 10 hunters chosen by the Arizona Game Commission to assist in reducing the State’s bison herd to a normal size compatible with its range in Kaibab Forest, returned here last night and reported each of the hunters bagged one animal.
Mrs. Tarbell brought with her the head, hide and 100 pounds of meat as proof she was able to make the kill. Another woman, Mrs. Emma K. Haynie. Tucson was in the party. The bison hunt occurs annually and is supervised by the commission. The hunter is allowed only 100 pounds of the meat of the bison he kills.