Gary Gaston visits Yellowstone National Park primarily to look for grizzlies, but good fortune put him in the right place at the right time to capture exclusive video of an extremely rare white bison calf shortly after it was born June 4.
The calf was born into a herd of bison that had been hanging out within sight of the highway in Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley.
The calf was born right near the confluence of Soda Butte Creek and the Lamar River.
Gaston is a retired biologist, so he understood the magnitude of what he was seeing after he spotted the calf, which had apparently just been born.
“I think there were no more than six people there, and they understood the significance of it,” Gaston told Cowboy State Daily.
Not everybody got it, he added.
“Some other cars came by and asked what we were taking photos and video of, and we said, ‘bison,’ and they just kept going,” Gaston said.
He set up a tripod, and with his camera rigged to take video through spotting scope, he shot video of the calf’s first few wobbly moments up on its feet, which he shared with Cowboy State Daily.
Other members of the herd moved in to help lick the calf and its mother clean, he said. And after a while, the bison moved southeast along the Lamar River, away from the road.
Except for one rumored sighting from the air, nobody has seen the white bison calf since, Gaston said.
Park Finally Confirms Calf
The National Park Service didn’t confirm the white calf’s birth until June 28.
The Yellowstone Center for Resources Bison Management Team received numerous reports about and photos of the animal, according to a statement from the Park Service.
The Park Service noted that the calf was likely a genuine white bison, rather an albino, because photos indicate it had “black eyes and hooves with some pigmentation,” rather than the red eyes usually associated with albino animals.
The odds of a white bison calf are about 1 in a million, according to the Park Service. The agency also stated that there hadn’t been any confirmed sightings of the calf since that first day.
Native Americans Celebrate
The birth of a white bison calf holds special significance for numerous Native American tribes and nations, particularly the Sioux.
Sioux elders and others hosted a ceremony in honor of the calf June 26 in West Yellowstone, Montana.
According to tradition, the animal’s birth is a sign of great blessings as well as a warning.
The warning is likely about the state of the Earth, one Sioux elder said, according to reports from the ceremony.
“Mother Earth is sick and has a fever,” said Chief Arvol Looking Horse, spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Oyate, known as the Great Sioux Nation.
Conspiracy Theories
Gaston lives in Oxford, Mississippi, but spends several months a year in Yellowstone.
His latest visit was from May 1 until Friday, and he plans to return in the fall.
He’s part of a group that watches and counts grizzly bears, passing the information along to biologists.
There were plenty of grizzly cubs in the park this spring, but getting video of the white bison calf was a rare treat, he said.
And since the animal has been elusive, there have been some “conspiracy theories” crop up around it, which he finds amusing.
One hot rumor is that the government kidnapped the animal and plans on putting it in a zoo, he said.
There’s also been rumors that the calf died after some of the adult bison accidentally stepped on it.
Gaston said he’s reasonably certain the calf is still alive somewhere and is confident there’s nothing to the theory of the baby bison being trampled.
“I was there, and I watched it when it was laying down,” he said. “It didn’t get stepped on.”
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
