Yellowstone staff ‘failed to locate’ rare white bison calf, authorities say

A rare American white bison, considered sacred by some indigenous people, has not been seen since its birth earlier this month, Yellowstone National Park has confirmed.

In a June 28 statement from the national park, officials said the cub had been missing since it was born June 4 in Lamar Valley, noting that staff were “unable to locate” the animal.

Yellowstone officials have not yet responded to TODAY.com’s request for comment on whether they believe the calf is still alive. In the statement, officials noted that one in five bison die “shortly after birth due to natural hazards” each spring.

Before the calf’s birth, there had never been a record of a white buffalo born in Yellowstone. The incredibly rare birth of a white buffalo in the wild occurs once in a million births, national park officials said in a statement.

For some Native Americans, the birth of the bison was both a blessing and a warning to the world.

“I never thought this would happen in our generation,” said Chief Arvol Looking Horse, spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Oyate, in an interview broadcast on TODAY on June 27.

Looking Horse said the birth is considered the second coming of the White Buffalo Woman, who first appeared thousands of years ago when buffalo were scarce and people were hungry, NBC News reported. She taught the Lakota people to pray and honor the Earth, and promised to return one day as a white buffalo with black eyes, nose and hooves.

On June 26, Indigenous groups burned sage, sang songs and danced during a ceremony at the national park in honor of the calf’s birth, according to NBC News, where the calf’s name was revealed: Wakan Gli, or Return Sacred.

“This is a wake-up call for us to do something,” Looking Horse said on TODAY.

Looking Horse had hoped that the female White Buffalo Calf would not return in his lifetime because it would be a sign that the world needed healing, according to NBC News. When a white calf was born in Wisconsin in 1994, he said he remembers feeling fear and terror when scientists started talking about climate change.

“It makes me cry every time I think about it because it shouldn’t be happening in this day and age and it did,” Looking Horse told TODAY.

Looking Horse also shared the lesson to be learned from this birth: “Mother Earth is sick and has a fever. And right now, it’s a spiritual awakening.”

The calf was first photographed on June 4, according to NBC News, when tour guide Jordan Creech was leading visitors through the park and came across the herd with a new arrival.

After taking the photo, Creech showed the picture to his boss, who told him it was a white buffalo.

“It’s not like an unusually white bison,” Creech recalled his boss telling him on the TODAY show. “It’s a white bison.”

“It seemed unreal to be so lucky to be one of dozens of people who took pictures of this thing, and I don’t think it’s been seen since,” Creech added.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com