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  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] White buffalo birth remains 'extremely rare'
  • Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 10:28:00 -0600


White buffalo birth remains 'extremely rare'
http://www.gazetteextra.com/white090906.asp
(Published Saturday, September 9, 2006)
By Marcia Nelesen Gazette Staff

Valerie and Dave Heider were checking for damage on their South River Road
farm after an electric storm two weeks ago. They pulled up short, not
believing their eyes.

In the pasture, suckling on its buffalo mom, was a newborn calf.

It was pure white.

Valerie's first words?

"Oh, God. Here we go again.''

"Unbelievable,'' Dave said on Friday. "How many times in a lifetime does
lighting strike?''

The Heiders' lives were changed when Miracle, a female white buffalo, was
born on their farm Aug. 20, 1994. White buffaloes are extremely rare and
are said to fulfill a Native American legend foretelling peace.

And now, a white male buffalo has been born on the same property.

"I just couldn't believe that we could possibly ever have another one, not
even related to Miracle whatsoever,'' Valerie said.

Miracle, the Heiders and Janesville made international news in 1994.

Believers and the curious descended on the farm, creating traffic jams on
the rural road. In 1995, visitors to the Heider farm increased tourism to
Rock County by 22 percent, David said.

The pilgrimages continued over the next decade, even after Miracle turned
brown, which also was prophesized. The visits continued even after the
buffalo died in 2004.

Now, Miracle is stuffed in the Heider gift shop.

This year, the number of visitors had dwindled enough so that the Heiders
plowed the nearby parking lot, planting it in corn.

The couple, who never charged visitors to view Miracle, got on with their
lives. Dave works for the Rock County Highway Department. And the Heiders
sell the produce from their thriving buffalo meat business at area farmers
markets.

Dave recalled that he and Valerie went outside Aug. 25 to make sure no
trees were downed on the fence.

"And it (the white buffalo) was standing up, sucking, the naval still
really wet,'' he said.

"It was kind of shocking, actually,'' Valerie said. "God gives you a second
chance on a lot of things.''

Neither Dave nor Valerie knows whether the birth will produce a similar
deluge of visitors.

"With this one being a male, I don't think it's going to have that kind of
a draw on people,'' he said. The white buffalo in the Indian legend is
female. And they have no clue how long the animal will remain white.

"But I imagine it's still sacred one way or the other,'' Dave said. "We
know the Native Americans are going to show up.''

Native Americans consider the land where Miracle was born to be sacred,
Valerie said. A second birth on the same sacred ground might increase the
significance.

The calf, which has yet to be named, is not related to Miracle, Dave said.

The dad was a Wisconsin grand champion who Dave bought two years ago. But
the bull kept jumping the fence.

"We couldn't keep him in,'' Dave said. "We just turned him into Hamburger
Helper.''

The bull also impregnated two other females that have yet to deliver.

The Heiders plan to eventually breed the calf with Miracle's decedents.

"Maybe we'll end up with three or four (white buffalo),'' Heider said.

The couple hadn't announced the birth as of Friday morning.

They didn't really want the hassles of the last time, Dave said.

"We don't want the influx, the hoards of thousands of people we had
before,'' he added.

But recently, while Valerie and Dave were photographing the calf, they
noticed neighbors watching with binoculars.

"We told one of the neighbors it was a dog,'' Valerie said.

The neighbor didn't buy it.

"Here it goes,'' Dave recalled thinking.

Someone was sure to call the media. And someone did.

"I guess something like that can't be kept quiet forever," Dave said.

The couple hope to continue their farmers markets, closing the farm when
they are gone. Or they may try to find somebody to stay at the place.

This actually is the third white buffalo born on the property.

One was born in 1997 but died at four days old, Valerie said.

On Friday, Valerie was still somewhat in shock.

"I still don't know whether to sit down and cry or be happy.''

Just how rare is the birth of a white buffalo?

Search the subject on the Internet, and you'll find the chances range
anywhere from 1 in 16 million to 1 in 6 billion.

Dave Carter, executive director of the National Bison Association in
Colorado, agreed that he's seen all kinds of statistics but doesn't have
any firm figures.

Considering the number of animals out there-and the number of white calves
the association knows have been born-those statistics are "a little
overstated,'' he said.

But the statistics are also skewed because some of the animals that have
produced white buffalo have been partially crossbred with Charolais beef
cattle, he said.

Carter said it remains "extremely rare'' for a white buffalo to come from
pure bison genetics.

"In terms of the overall number of animals out there, it continues to be
very rare,'' Carter said. "Particularly for the Native Americans, its very
special and sacred.''

The number of buffalos being raised is increasing, so Carter predicts that
more white buffalo will be born.

Carter said the association would watch with interest Dave Heider's plans
to breed the new male white buffalo with Miracle's descendents.

"There's been so little research done on bison genetics-in terms of these
kind of characteristics-compared to research done on cattle and sheep,''
Carter said. "Our learning curve is very steep. We'll take all the
information we can get.''.





  • [Livingontheland] White buffalo birth remains 'extremely rare', TradingPostPaul, 09/11/2006

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