* Update from the Field

A soft tuft of wild buffalo hair, caught on a branch, flows in the breeze overlooking the Madison River. This landscape, once teeming with the shaggy mammoths, is now void of their presence. BFC file photo by Stephany. Click photo for larger image.

Wild buffalo continue to be needlessly harassed by livestock interests merely for being in their native Montana. The government's bison abuse activities are dwindling down, though have yet to cease. When the agents finally leave the area, they will also leave behind a veritable buffalo ghost town. Tracks, tufts of woolly hair, and old scat will be all that's left to remind us that the miracle of the gentle giants was not just a dream.

Buffalo Field Campaign Video 6/03/12 Last Week of May Hazes This weeks tax payer funded mishandling of our Buffalo includes: Stampeding Buffalo through Housing Areas, Disrupting Wildlife and Shooting Paintballs in the Butt of a Bull Buffalo. More video from the field

Click on this image to watch BFC's most recent footage from the field.

Buffalo Field Campaign patrols remain in the field, documenting all actions made against our wild friends. Click the image above to view the most recent video from BFC demonstrating a brief glimpse of what wild buffalo - and other wildlife - have been suffering to appease livestock interests. Please see the Take Action section below for some important things you can do to help prevent these things from happening in the future.

While our volunteers have been giving their all in the field for the buffalo, they have also been hard at work to begin another season of outreach. Summer tabling inside Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks is about to begin, our 2011-2012 field season newsletter will soon be printed and mailed, we have just completed our 2013 Wild Bison Calendar which we know you will love, and, last but not at all least, BFC is sponsoring the 17th Annual World Peace and Prayer Day (see below), with the focus being "Life Fire of the Buffalo."

Once we have them on hand, we could use your help in distributing our new newsletter. If you'd like us to send you a stack so you can put them out in your community, please reply to this email with your mailing address and let us know how many you'd like us to send. The sooner you let us know, the better, as we can remove you from the upcoming mailing.

A kind and curious gaze from a young wild buffalo, photo by Barbara Magnuson and Larry Kimball, used with permission. Click photo for larger image.

As we work to protect the buffalo, inching our way towards a better future, we also work hard to cultivate wild buffalo champions and to honor these gentle giants in every possible way. It is because of you and your support that we are able to continue in our work defending wild buffalo and their right to roam.

Wild is the Way ~ Roam Free!

* BFC Honored to Sponsor World Peace & Prayer Day, Life Fire of the Bison

Please join us in person or in Spirit on June 21, in Grand Teton National Park, for the 17th Annual World Peace and Prayer Day. The focus of this year's powerful event will be "Life Fire of the Bison." Buffalo Field Campaign is truly honored to be the sponsor of this globally significant event. No matter where you are, you can participate and help raise the energy of the buffalo nation and the healing that will come with the buffalos' return. Learn more

Help BFC sponsor this important event

* TAKE ACTION! Two Urgent Actions Need Your Attention!

Here are two brand new actions that you can take to make a big difference for wild buffalo!

1. URGENT! Contact Your Senators and Tell Them to VOTE NO on Farm Bill Amendment 2175

2. Montana Only: Tell the State to Restore Wild Bison! Comments Accepted through June 25

* By the Numbers

AMERICAN BUFFALO ELIMINATED from the last wild population in the U.S. The last wild population is currently estimated at fewer than 3,700 individual buffalo. Wild bison are currently ecologically extinct throughout their native range in North America.

2011-2012 Total Buffalo Killed: 30

2011-2012 Government Capture: 10
2011-2012 Buffalo Released from Capture: 7
2011-2012 Government Slaughter:
2011-2012 Held for Government Experiment: 3
2011-2012 Died In Government Trap:
2011-2012 Miscarriage in Government Trap:
2011-2012 State & Treaty Hunts: 28
2011-2012 Quarantine:
2011-2012 Shot by Agents:
2011-2012 Killed by Angry Residents:
2011-2012 Highway Mortality: 2

2010-2011 Total: 227
2009-2010 Total: 7
2008-2009 Total: 22
2007-2008 Total: 1,631

* Total Since 2000: 4,005*

*includes lethal government action, trap-related fatalities, quarantine/experiments, hunts, highway mortality

* Last Words ~ Innocent Calves are Animal Kingdom's Children of Gold

Here is an incredible tale, from a baby buffalo's perspective, of what it means to be a brand new buffalo exploring the dawn of life. For this little buffalo, mom's protections are strong enough to quell the wee calf's fears.

~~~
Innocent Calves are Animal Kingdom's Children of Gold
by Dick Kettlewell
Appearing in the Rapid City Journal May 29, 2012

Fully awake from her long night's slumber, the little golden bison calf lifted her head upward to the sky and drew the morning's freshness into her lungs. A multitude of scents greeted her infant senses, many of them still unfamiliar.

Her curious young eyes began to search about at a world that still showed her something new and different at practically every turn, a world that seemed utterly boundless.

She was a few days old, at most.

About 10 feet away, her mother quietly browsed in the dry winter grass mixed with the deliciously green shoots of spring. The rest of the herd was spread out along the banks of a small stream that wound its way through the bottom of a prairie ravine.

Pangs of hunger began to call, and the little calf ambled over to her mother's side on legs that were still uncertain at times. The familiarity of the cow's musty scent was reassuring as the tot began to suckle the warm, sweet milk that filled her mother's udder. After awhile, the cow gently separated the youngster from her swollen teats and moved down to the stream for a drink.

With her belly full, curiosity once more engaged the little one's attention - she saw her chance to explore. She began to wander up the stream, now intent on meeting some of the other juveniles. Almost immediately, her inquisitive eyes were met by yet another pair of exploring pupils belonging to a youngster like herself. As the two golden toddlers stood only a couple of feet apart, each studied the other with a mixture of eagerness and uncertainty.

Then the instinct for youthful play took over as the two began pushing each other about in the grassy playpen. Friends.

With this newfound partner at her side, the little calf was confident they would soon be masters of this vast world. The two set out together for greater glory.

The youthful pair soon found themselves at the herd's outer parameter, pondering what new experience might await them in the tall grass ahead. With supreme overconfidence, the little calf began to wander away from the refuge of the herd while her partner, not nearly so cocky, turned and headed back into the pack's interior.

The calf hadn't gone far when the morning solitude was shattered by a sinister and piercing howl. What quickly followed was a full chorus of the same chilling sound. Terror shot through the little one's heart as she bolted in blind panic back to the herd, crying for her mother now lost from her sight.

Standing on the stream bank, the cow lifted her head as the little one's cries reached her ears. The mother bellowed out across the herd in reply, and the infant reached her haven and nearly buried her terrified face into the cow's side, reassured by a familiar scent. Soon, with her belly full once more, the little golden calf settled down into the grass for a long nap right beside Mom.

There would be no more conquering of new worlds today.

###
~~~

And so this wonderful tale shows us a more perfect world for buffalo, and the gentle way that life should be for the little calves, their first days of life, and the power of mom. Wolves, bears and winter are formidable enough. But, for the wild buffalo calves born in Montana, even mother's greatest strength is not enough to stop the threats in human shapes donning cowboy hats. A buffalo mother can only keep her baby safe from the abusive harassment of pursuing agents by fleeing for their lives - for miles without end - or if they are lucky, finding thick woods to disappear in, until the coast is clear.

A mama buffalo tries to protect her baby from danger, but that danger presses on and after them for many many miles, offering no rest and no mercy. BFC file photo by Stephany. Click photo for larger image.

Do you have submissions for Last Words? Send them to us! Thank you for all the poems, songs, quotes and stories you have been sending! Keep them coming!

Media & Outreach
Buffalo Field Campaign
P.O. Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
406-646-0070
bfc-media"at"wildrockies.org
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org
BFC is the only group working in the field every day in defense of the last wild buffalo population in the U.S.