A rare white bison calf was recently spotted in Yellowstone National Park, an event interpreted by Native Americans as a significant prophecy.
An unusually rare white bison calf has been photographed in Yellowstone National Park in the US. According to current records, according to the BBC, this is the first white bison born from the last wild herd in the US. Native American tribes, who see this event as a religious prophecy of coming changes, are delighted.
The birth of a white bison is a sacred event for many tribes of the Great Plains, including the Lakota people. According to their legend, the arrival of a white calf heralds both “blessing and warning,” Simon Moya-Smith, an Oglala Lakota writer, told the BBC. Tribes are currently working to interpret the meaning of the calf’s arrival.
Lakota legend tells of a beautiful woman who gave the community a sacred pipe and bundle, promising to bring harmony to a difficult world. The woman then rolled on the ground four times, changing color each time, before turning into a white buffalo calf. Her disappearance led to the return of the bison. White bison have since been seen as a sign that prayers are being answered and change is coming.
While there have been other births of white bison in recent decades, these have occurred in captivity and the parents of these animals carried domesticated cow DNA, according to the BBC. There are currently no statistics on how many white bison actually live in the US. The National Bison Association previously estimated that only one or two of this species are born each year, according to the BBC.
A photographer managed to photograph the young bison in the park’s Lamar Valley while visiting the national park with her children. “It was so amazing. I thought I had a better chance of photographing Bigfoot than a white bison calf,” the woman told the BBC.
The existence of the white calf has not yet been officially confirmed by Yellowstone Park, but an event to celebrate its arrival is planned for June 26 in the town of West Yellowstone, Montana.
The Buffalo Field Campaign, a group that works to protect bison, will participate in the event. Lakota elders and delegates from other tribes are also expected to attend.
The Lakota chief, who is the 19th generation keeper of the pipe said to have been given to the tribe by the White Buffalo Woman, said in a statement that the calf’s arrival was a sign “that we must do more to heal Grandmother Earth and protect her sacred children. The birth of this calf is both a blessing and a warning.”
However, the sighting of the rare bison calf is not the only unusual event in Yellowstone National Park. It was only in November 2023 that the park confirmed for the first time the occurrence of a rare disease in the carcass of an adult mule deer.
Chronic Wasting Disease, which is currently spreading among wild deer in the USA, is fatal for the infected animals and is transmitted through excretions such as saliva, blood, urine or feces. The symptoms include drastic weight loss, stumbling, listlessness and other neurological symptoms.
The animals have a rather depressed appearance, a fixed gaze. They tend to separate from the herd and have a large appetite. This is where the comparison with zombies came from.
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