GENTRY -- Anyone familiar with cattle knows it can be a difficult task to get a cow to accept a calf that is not her own.
The Wild Wilderness Safari has an even more unusual adoption that occurred without human intervention: a Pere David's deer fawn has been adopted by a bison herd and nurses alongside the bison calves.
The fawn, about 10 days old, could be seen recently among the white bison herd with the other calves instead of with the other deer and its mother. The fawn nursed alongside a bison calf from a large white buffalo cow.
"The sacred white buffalo has adopted an endangered Pere David's deer fawn," said Leon Wilmoth, manager and caretaker at the Safari. "I've never seen anything like it."
Wilmoth has been around both species at the safari for many years. Usually, the bison won't let another animal near their calves, he said.
Jim Matheson, assistant director of the National Bison Association, headquartered in Westminster, Colo., said he's never heard of it either.
"Occasionally, a bison calf is orphaned or twins will be born and a cow won't accept both," Matheson said. "Then it is sometimes possible to get another cow to accept the orphaned calf."
Pere David's deer, also known as milu, is a species native to the lowlands of China, but is extinct in the wild, according to the Animal Diversity Website maintained by the University of Michigan. The only deer remaining are those kept and preserved in animal refuges and parks similar to the Wild Wilderness Safari.
The Safari has good numbers of both species and calves and fawns are abundant this time of year, but this is the first time a bison cow has accepted a deer fawn as her own.
The Wild Wilderness Safari is at 20923 Safari Road in Gentry. For more information, call 479-736-8383.
NW News on 05/27/2014