Yesterday I stopped at Buffaloland to see how the calves, born in the spring, were doing.
There were a lot of people who had pulled into Buffaloland as the buffalo were close to the fence by the highway and could be seen better. Children were excited to see the buffalo up close.
The buffalo are amazing wild animals of nature with the hump on their backs, the chin goatees and the tuffs of hair on their legs. They may look fierce but they are gentle giants and normally would only attack to protect the young.
Another amazing fact is the oldest female is the leader of the herd. If she dies than the next oldest female takes over.
The bulls and females try to protect the young calves by keeping them inside their circle.
These calves have lost the orange color of their fur coat and taken on the reddish brown color of the older buffalo.
If you are wondering what the buffalo to the right is doing on the ground, He may have a itchy back and rolling around in the dirt to relief the itch
This is the color of the calves when they are first born and they maintain the orange color for a few months.
Last year there were 58 head in the herd but with the new calves I think there are about 65 buffalo.
I’ve mentioned the story before of how the province of Alberta send PEI a male and female buffalo and from those two this herd developed.
At one time the herd was culled and the meat sold as a way to keep the herd under control. Since the Buddhist have taken over the care of the herd, they were having the bulls sterilized rather than culled.
The story goes that one big bull could not be tranquilized to be sterilized and he is fathering all the new calves.
It is nice to see the new calves every spring as long as Buffaloland Park can maintain the expanding herd. They all look to be in good shape.
Location: Prince Edward Island, Canada
Photo & text @redheadpei unless sourced. All Rights Reserved without my permission
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Courtesy of @derangedvisions
