In case you missed the original airing of the documentary about the buffalo and the Buffalo Field Campaign
Here is a little shameless promotion for the Buffalo Field Campaign
From the BFC Weekly Update:
Tune in because it’s on again! Late tonight and on Thursday, January 7th, Discovery’s Planet Green will once again air Buffalo Battle. This Planet Green program, produced by Matthew Testa, tells the continuing story about the plight of the Yellowstone bison population and work of Buffalo Field Campaign. Buffalo Battle has been getting tremendously positive feedback, so Planet Green is giving the public more viewing opportunities. The more viewers they get, the more likely it is they’ll want to make a series and this will certainly help tell the world about what is happening to the last wild buffalo. Please check your local listings for showtimes and invite your friends and colleagues to watch Buffalo Battle with you late tonight and again on Thursday, January 7th. For more information visit Planet Green.
Comments
Unrelated, but here’s a cool mt. lion article from Oklahoma, where a trail-side camera photographed a cougar:
http://newsok.com/trail-camera-near-atoka-snaps-a-mountain-lion/article/3429730
This was a good show that showed how dedicated the BFC crew is, kept hammering the elk issue, and gave NPS and DOL officials time to express their agencies policies. There were a few unclear parts that I’m hoping someone w/BFC might clarify.
At one point the BFC were trying to locate a calf that was separated from its cow. I know these shows are edited quite a bit, but was shown made them look a bit foolish by not revealing how they were going to accomplish this if they indeed located the calf. Does anyone know how they would catch the calf and reunite it?
There was also footage of a calf with a broken leg trying to keep up with a hazed herd. The BFCers said the calf was injured because of the hazing and that the DOL wouldn’t leave the calf alone. The DOL official said they tried to hold the cow and calf back from the hazing but the bison were being pushed by the BFC personnel towards the DOL herder. The brief footage accompanying this claim seemed to corroborate the DOL version with a herder on horseback trying to stop the cow and calf’s progress on one side of them and the approaching camera view coming from the other side (the cow and calf were then stuck between the herder and the BFC cameras). Can anyone clarify this incident?
cc,
I am on the Board of Directors of BFC. BFC would not try to capture the calf to reunite it with its mother. They simply document what is happening to the buffalo and how they are being managed and abused by the agencies involved.
The agencies don’t want this kind of attention.
With regard to the calf with the broken leg, it is nonsense to suggest that BFC members were pushing the buffalo. They are heavily managed while in the field and constantly threatened with arrest by these agency people. If these agency people had any regard for these buffalo they would have ceased the operation right there and allowed the injured buffalo to stay in the company of the herd. The injury was almost certainly a death sentence to the calf and the only chance any calf has at survival is to stay with the herd. The DoL was trying to keep the mother and calf separate from the herd but buffalo had no other choice or instinct.
With regard to the injury, there is no proof that it occurred during the hazing operation but it is almost certain that it did. The herd was engaged on private land with a helicopter and the entire herd was running in fear. Nobody witnessed the injury but this is very likely when it took place.
I think that the blame for this incident lies squarely on the cowboys of the DoL.
Ken,
Thanks for replying. I hope it does get picked up as a series. I’d like to think that nature shows that actually educate people and inspire action can still find an audience.