- Joined
- Apr 30, 2005
- Messages
- 33,296
BeekeeperBetty|1465094822|4040337 said:They don't mention in the article that the calf had already been rejected by its mother when they found it. They stupidly believed that the park rangers cared about saving the bison. They do not. If the calf is rejected, it will die a slow terrible death by starvation if the wolves didn't get to it first.
kenny|1465096421|4040343 said:BeekeeperBetty|1465094822|4040337 said:They don't mention in the article that the calf had already been rejected by its mother when they found it. They stupidly believed that the park rangers cared about saving the bison. They do not. If the calf is rejected, it will die a slow terrible death by starvation if the wolves didn't get to it first.
If, and I DO mean IF, humans were not the reason the mother rejected it then let nature take its course.
Wolves vultures, flies and maggots and all those other critters deserve food just as much as attractive animals do.
kenny, bison won't turn their back on one of their own just because it's come into contact with a human. But there are bison mamas who rebuff a eager-to-nurse, newborn offspring -- or a somewhat older yearling will keep its new sibling from approaching the mother, may even kill the baby. The fact that there were no other bison in the immediate vicinity suggests to me that the baby had indeed been rejected/abandoned before it made its way to the Yellowstone roadway.kenny said:If, and I DO mean IF, humans were not the reason the mother rejected it then let nature take its course * * *
If the newborn bison does not receive colostrum in its very first hours, its chances of survival are slim to none, even with human intervention. It's not as if the US Park Service keeps bags of frozen bison colostrum and milk & newborn calf-appropriate nursing bottles at the ready. Bison calves often reject the bottle's unnatural nipple anyway, so the next step is to insert a special feeding tube -- again, not standard equipment at a Park ranger station. Plus, that's a procedure destined for failure (if not death to the baby bison) when undertaken by someone who's not performed the procedure themselves or even seen it done.luv2sparkle|1465095331|4040339 said:I never understood why they had to euthanize it. There has got to be some kind animal rescue in the area. Since it had already been rejected by its mother/herd it really could have been saved. The park rangers just didn't want to be bothered.
THANK YOU, packie, for saying this so concisely!packrat said:* * * There is a reason why they did what they did. We aren't the all knowing bystanders. Again. Really. We're not. If someone says "hey, this is my job, I've had schooling, training, I know what is going on here, this is what happened, this is what happened as a result of that, this is what occurred because of those instances" I kind of tend to believe them.
For whatever reason, we can not accept the fact that sometimes *we* (especially the *we* who are unschooled and uneducated in a particular area) don't know best, and there is a reason why we have people who are "in the know". Arm chair quarterbacking. Again. * * *
kenny|1465096421|4040343 said:BeekeeperBetty|1465094822|4040337 said:They don't mention in the article that the calf had already been rejected by its mother when they found it. They stupidly believed that the park rangers cared about saving the bison. They do not. If the calf is rejected, it will die a slow terrible death by starvation if the wolves didn't get to it first.
If, and I DO mean IF, humans were not the reason the mother rejected it then let nature take its course.
Wolves vultures, flies and maggots and all those other critters deserve food just as much as attractive animals do.
jordyonbass said:Whenever we are in the wild we have a motto we try to adhere to; 'take nothing but photos and leave nothing but bootprints'. It essentially means that we don't disturb anything native if we don't have to, we may catch or gather food etc but it's only for immediate consumption and not to be taken out with us. The main reason we try to interfere as little as possible with natives is disease and issues with animals making a social association with people.
Agreed!MollyMalone|1465102540|4040363 said:kenny, bison won't turn their back on one of their own just because it's come into contact with a human. But there are bison mamas who rebuff a eager-to-nurse, newborn offspring -- or a somewhat older yearling will keep its new sibling from approaching the mother, may even kill the baby. The fact that there were no other bison in the immediate vicinity suggests to me that the baby had indeed been rejected/abandoned before it made its way to the Yellowstone roadway.kenny said:If, and I DO mean IF, humans were not the reason the mother rejected it then let nature take its course * * *
If the newborn bison does not receive colostrum in its very first hours, its chances of survival are slim to none, even with human intervention. It's not as if the US Park Service keeps bags of frozen bison colostrum and milk & newborn calf-appropriate nursing bottles at the ready. Bison calves often reject the bottle's unnatural nipple anyway, so the next step is to insert a special feeding tube -- again, not standard equipment at a Park ranger station. Plus, that's a procedure destined for failure (if not death to the baby bison) when undertaken by someone who's not performed the procedure themselves or even seen it done.luv2sparkle|1465095331|4040339 said:I never understood why they had to euthanize it. There has got to be some kind animal rescue in the area. Since it had already been rejected by its mother/herd it really could have been saved. The park rangers just didn't want to be bothered.
THANK YOU, packie, for saying this so concisely!packrat said:* * * There is a reason why they did what they did. We aren't the all knowing bystanders. Again. Really. We're not. If someone says "hey, this is my job, I've had schooling, training, I know what is going on here, this is what happened, this is what happened as a result of that, this is what occurred because of those instances" I kind of tend to believe them.
For whatever reason, we can not accept the fact that sometimes *we* (especially the *we* who are unschooled and uneducated in a particular area) don't know best, and there is a reason why we have people who are "in the know". Arm chair quarterbacking. Again. * * *
~ Molly, whose great-uncle had (after he retired as a wildlife conservation officer) a small herd of bison on his farm.