I arrived in Gardiner Sunday evening. We had heard from allies that there haven’t been buffalo near the park border, but the sinking feeling I get when pulling into the Gardiner Basin is still there. I love returning to these mountains, to the buffalo – I’d been smiling since seeing the mountains of Montana first came into view.
But Gardiner? So often winter in Gardiner means bloody slaughter and sadness. So as I get closer to town, despite knowledge that the buffalo have been staying safe in the park, I’m still scanning passing trucks to look for hunt rigs, to look for body parts in the back. I see vehicles stopped on the gravel “low road” that runs parallel to the freeway and I panic, but realize they’re tourists, stopped to look at some bighorn or pronghorn. Finally arriving, I see the land is quiet, empty of buffalo, and empty of “hunters”.
The next morning, I check all the regular spots outside the park, and patrol all the areas we’d normally find buffalo this time of year. The land is beautiful, covered in a bit of fresh snow, and without the gunfire, without the bloodshed, it’s peaceful and serene. But without the buffalo, the land, however peaceful, feels lonely.
This winter here in Gardiner, on the north side of Yellowstone, the buffalo never migrated out of the park, so they never met the firing line at the border. It has been a very mild winter, frighteningly so. In a mild winter the buffalo don’t need to seek food at lower elevations. The snows up high are not so deep – at least to a buffalo. So this mild winter has certainly spared buffalo lives.
But we cannot forget that nearly a third of the entire Yellowstone population of wild buffalo were killed or stolen from the land last season. That is a lot less buffalo to find their way out of the park. And those who were killed or removed last year – those who are killed or removed every year – are the leaders of migrations out. These slaughters, these captures, this quarantine – they’re not just killing buffalo, but they’re killing migratory memory as well.
But not this year.
Once I was confident there were no free roaming buffalo outside the park, I went into Yellowstone to find our friends. Between Mammoth and Lamar Valley I counted around 450 buffalo. They are closer to the northern end of the park than we’d last heard, and a little close for comfort, but for now they are safe. With the mild winter, the buffalo friends I encountered looked healthy and well fed. The mamas sported beautiful round bellies that spoke of the coming spring and the coming generation. It is incredible to be among our wild buffalo relatives without the death and destruction of the past few winters.
The next day brought a bit of new snow, and some movement of buffalo in the park, but not so much as to make us worry. It also brought some incredible time spent near a herd with a few young bulls who definitely have a bit of spring fever. I leave you with a bit of video of that wild dance.
Thank you for supporting wild buffalo, and for supporting us. Anything you can contribute to keep getting us out into the field is appreciated.
From the field, for wild buffalo,
Cindy (RFN board member)