Oakland Zoo welcomed an adorable baby bison earlier this month! Affectionately called a “red dog”, the calf sports a reddish-brown coat and is very playful.
This was the zoo’s fourth bison calf birth this season and the 50th bison birth since the start of Oakland Zoo’s partnership with Blackfeet Nation and Indigenous LED in 2016. The goal of the program is to restore bison to free-ranging herds roaming Blackfeet Territory and Glacier National Park in Montana.
In May, the program transported five zoo-born bison by trailer to a free-ranging herd in Montana. The additions to the herd will promote genetic diversity and will help bolster the population of bison in the wild.
In the early 1900s, American bison (also known as buffalo) nearly went extinct due to the surge of settlers moving west. Currently, bison numbers are improving but the populations still lack genetic diversity. The partnership of Oakland Zoo, Blackfeet Nation, and Indigenous LED aims to address that issue with captive breeding.
“With the birth of its 50th calf, the Oakland Zoo is helping bring home far more than buffalo to the Blackfeet Nation. Together, we are restoring threads that were once severed—between people and place, culture and identity, memory and future—showing what becomes possible when restoration is rooted in relationship,” says Cristina Mormorunni, Executive Director of Indigenous LED.
To learn more about the bison restoration project, see the Oakland Zoo website and the Indigenous LED website.
For more information about bison, see our article, American Bison.
