One of the unexpected joys of a visit to Fermilab is seeing the resident buffalo (technically they're plains bison, but "buffalo" is the name that resonates; see below.) The size of the herd has changed over the years--there are times it gets so big that some of the shaggy creatures have to be sold at auction--and every spring it puts on a growth spurt in the form of newborn calves. I promised myself I would wangle a trip over there to see the babies, which are said to be the cutest things ever, but dang! It was not to be. Here's a photo of the first little one of the year, born on April 18th. If I'm not mistaken, you can still see a bit of the umbilical cord hanging down from its belly. While there are no individual stats for the newborn--no height, weight, first hoofprint, first utterance (listen to a bison call here), not even a name--they generally weigh 30 to 40 pounds, and stand up within half an hour of birth.
The first five buffalo, a bull and four cows, were brought to the lab nearly 50 years ago by founding director Robert Wilson. More info here, some of it quite rhapsodic:
"Buffalo" lends itself to symbol, which is the role of the Fermilab herd: a symbol of the frontier, in this case the frontier of high-energy physics, and a link to the origin of the Lab's site as land of the great midwestern prairie. "Buffalo" speaks of a time of big sky, of thundering herds huge enough to shake the earth beyond the horizon, of Plains Indians and their ponies on the hunt, and of sharpshooting Buffalo Bill. ("Bison Bill?" Don't think so.)
It goes on to advise:
Although they look placid, buffalo have the undomesticated personality of the wild. Like physicists, they have been described as "cantankerous" by those who have tried to herd them. A double fence around the Fermilab pasture protects the buffalo and the public from each other. Advice from an experienced hand: "Don't turn your back on a buffalo."
Hmm. Wonder if that goes for some physicists, too??!
