Baby bison euthanized after ride in visitors' car

I think once the herd rejected the calf, the rangers likely did it a favor by humanely euthanizing it instead of leaving it in the wild and letting nature handle putting it down.

Generally people are clueless in the laws of nature, laws of the parks, and potential diseases........ Bottom line is the Rangers did what they had to do by law.

dewey02: Thanks for the report and yes, they were all clueless. This is nature and it happens over and over again when most folks don't see any of this. Leave nature alone.

Just saw an interview on Good Morning America with the father and son who did this. The son was probably about 35 or 40 years old, so this was no little boy. They said they wanted to tell their side of the story, and to dispell all the social media comments that they were clueless about animals.

In fact, they proved they were as clueless as people thought they were. And ABC news was just as clueless as well. The NPS is trying to manage Yellowstone as much as a natural environment as possible. If this bison calf could not make it across the water and got separated from the flock...so be it. Death and dying and predator/prey relationships are clearly a part of life. Some people may think this is cruel, and the baby bison should have been put up for adoption, but this isn't your pet pomeranian dog. It is a fact of life and nature. How many bison calves suffer the same fate, just out of site of the meddling tourist? And it is part of the life cycle, they will become food for wolves, bears, eagles and vultures. I'm pretty certain that if this hadn't become a media circus and if it hadn't happened in a location along the road, the NPS rangers would have simply returned the calf to the spot and let nature take its course. And that is how it SHOULD be.
These bison are not pets. Yellowstone is not a zoo. It tries to be a natural system, to the extent that it can be with being crowded with tourists much of the snow free period.
The ABC Good Morning America show should have had a wildlife expert or at least a representative from the Park Service to offer an intelligent interpretation of the situation. Instead, they said this father and son "knew about wildlife" because they had taken several father son trips to view wildlife in various parks. Sheesh.

I agree the people shouldn't have done that,but thge calf could have been saved. No need to kill it.

It's not that easy, even if a facility is available. You can't take a wild baby into captivity, pop a bottle in it's mouth and expect it to always survive. There are many factors that go into the ability to rehab or save an animal. As sad as it is, sometimes there's just no alternative.

RGar974417 wrote:
I agree the people shouldn't have done that,but thge calf could have been saved. No need to kill it.

Ahhh...from a couple of posts up:

"In order to ship the calf out of the park, it would have had to go through months of quarantine to be monitored for brucellosis. No approved quarantine facilities exist at this time, and we don't have the capacity to care for a calf that's too young to forage on its own. Nor is it the mission of the National Park Service to rescue animals: our goal is to maintain the ecological processes of Yellowstone. Even though humans were involved in this case, it is not uncommon for bison, especially young mothers, to lose or abandon their calves. Those animals typically die of starvation or predation."

I agree the people shouldn't have done that,but thge calf could have been saved. No need to kill it.

Take the time and watch the National Parks series on PBS.

It graphically shows what the first "tourists" did to the parks. I was shocked it was almost unbelievable and am amazed they managed to stop it and save the wildlife and the Parks.

Sadly after watching that series and then seeing all these ridiculous videos and selfies of the 'new' generation of tourists?

I think we are headed right back to square one if the Park Rangers don't start clamping down and issuing HUGE fines for not following park rules. :(

For those wondering why the calf wasn't taken to a farm or refuge, this is from the park's Facebook page:

"In order to ship the calf out of the park, it would have had to go through months of quarantine to be monitored for brucellosis. No approved quarantine facilities exist at this time, and we don't have the capacity to care for a calf that's too young to forage on its own. Nor is it the mission of the National Park Service to rescue animals: our goal is to maintain the ecological processes of Yellowstone. Even though humans were involved in this case, it is not uncommon for bison, especially young mothers, to lose or abandon their calves. Those animals typically die of starvation or predation."

rexlion wrote:
I never did hear what country the tourists were from... just that they were foreigners. Makes me curious.

Not all that "foreign", they're from Canada...