Home on the range: Bison born at South Park Buffalo Preserve
Courtesy of Tim Foster
Diane was born at the South Park Buffalo Preserve on April 4.
Courtesy of Tim Foster
Big Head sticks out his tongue for a treat at the South Park Buffalo Preserve.
Courtesy of Tim Foster
Diane is shown with her mother, Rosie, moments after being born.
Courtesy of Tim Foster
Big Head enjoys a strawberry.
Courtesy of South Park Buffalo preserve
Blue, the newest member of the South Park Buffalo Preserve, was born April 22.
Courtesy of Buffalo Bob South Park Buffalo Preserve
Lily nurses Lily at the South Park Buffalo Preserve.
The herd of buffalo continues to roam – and grow – at South Park Buffalo Preserve.
Last weekend, first-time mom Lily gave birth to a male named “Blue,” becoming the second bison born this month at the southern Allegheny County preserve. Mom Rosie gave birth to “Diane” on April 4.
Tim Foster, who lives near the preserve and volunteers there with his wife, Diane, said Blue’s birth was a little rougher than Diane’s because Lily is a first-time mom.
Caretaker “Buffalo Bob” Kuzma had to assist in delivering Blue, pulling the newborn from his mother. It also took Blue a while to get on his feet and nurse.
Diane Foster – for whom the other baby bison was named – went to the store to get organic milk, which Bob fed to Blue to help him gain some strength.
Buffalo have roamed in South Park for some time. In 1927, an Allegheny County commissioner purchased 18 buffalo and brought them to the area amid fear of the animals’ extinction. They have been a staple of the area since.
“They’re such a tame animal,” Tim Foster said. “We can feed them. ‘Big Head,’ who’s the big male, will take strawberries out of my hand better than any dog you would try to give a treat to.”
The Fosters were at the preserve April 4 when Rosie wandered off into the woods by herself.
“We were the first ones to see her go off on her own,” Tim Foster said. “We were walking down the hill to leave and saw her walking down to the woods by herself. My wife, a mom of twins, said, ‘She’s going to have that baby.'”
Buffalo Bob told them that it could be a few days to a week before the baby was born. However, they went to the woods to check on Rosie and the birth was already underway.
“It was pretty quick,” Tim Foster said. “We had a buffalo baby that was up taking its first steps. To see the baby come out with that reddish color, it was just amazing.”
Some names were bandied about for the new bison, but Buffalo Bob decided on “Diane.”
“We do a lot of volunteer work, but we don’t do it for the accolades,” Tim Foster said. “It’s really cool. It’s well-deserved. It’s funny to hear people up there say, ‘There’s little Diane.'”
The new female bison can stay on the preserve, but Blue likely will be moved in a year. Buffalo Bob prefers to keep only one male on the preserve to protect the herd and prevent the possibility of fights.
Tim Foster said they initially became involved when they worked to stop plans to rezone the area for high-density housing.
“One of the things we got concerned about was the buffalo preserve,” he said. “People forget about them. They’ve been here for almost 100 years. So many more people need to know about this. Just doing a couple of news stories from there and doing the Facebook page that we started have put them back on the map a little bit. It’s been an amazing pleasure to get to know these animals.”
Blue’s birth brings the bison population at the preserve to 12. However, that number will be growing again, as two more bison – Violet and Daisy – are expecting very soon.
“Daisy, the dominant female, is so big, that Bob is joking she may be having twins, which is very rare,” Foster said. “But when you see one that big, either it’s going to be such a big baby or it’s going to be twins.”