Annual spring rites include the birth and renewal of buffaloes

BARBER COUNTY — Deep in the Red Hills of Kansas, on the 43,000-acre Z Bar Ranch in Barber County, 2,000-pound giants regularly cross the ridges and clearings. Noses to the ground, they nibble blades of grass while bellowing primordial, deep and guttural sounds.

They are buffaloes. The ranch has 1,900 males and females with 200 baby calves so far this spring, but with a total of about 700 expected.

It’s the largest private herd in the state and one of the best places for curious Kansans to see what these lands looked like 150 or 200 years ago.

No other animal has such an iconic heritage in Kansas. The buffalo is on our district and state seal. We even sing them in our national song.

Yet few of us have ever observed them up close, let alone heard the sounds they make as they weave through prairie grasses.

April and May are the months when babies are born, while the hills take on their spring colors.

But wait… is that a bison or a buffalo?

“Well, technically they’re bison,” said Eva Yearout, who, with her husband Keith,

manage the Z Bar, southwest of Medicine Lodge.

“We call them buffalo because, to me, they’re a bit like cattle producers. These breeders eat beef; we raise buffalo and eat bison.

“But they’re technically bison.”

A painful past

More than 25 million buffalo once ranged across the grasslands.

In 1541, when Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado crossed what would become Kansas, he wrote that the plains were filled with such numbers of bison “that it is impossible to count them.”

The buffalo was emblematic of the West and the great prairies that people discovered while exploring the region. They have come to symbolize free will and free range.

But for much of the 19th century, the buffalo nearly disappeared as they were hunted for their tongues and hides, which were in high demand on the East Coast and in Europe.

As settlers encroached on buffalo habitat, Native American tribes were forcibly removed from Kansas.

Today, nearly 150 years later, it is increasingly common to see buffalo throughout the state.

The animals return the meadow to its original state.

A return to conservation

Before buffalo were allowed to make a comeback, some ranchers allowed livestock to overgraze, nearly killing the native prairie of big bluestem, panicle, Indian stem, and small bluestem grass. Invasive red cedars were everywhere.

Buffaloes and regular fire conservation burning have changed that. The Z Bar conducts regular burns each year. And that helped the meadow wake up.

On these lands, meadow larks, prairie chickens and quails call. Along with the buffalo and native grasses, came villages of prairie dogs, burrowing owls, golden eagles, prairie chickens, and antelope.

In groups of 20 to 60, buffalo stay within five to six feet of each other. The groups extend to the horizon.

As Eva Yearout shows the herd to some ranch visitors, she warns them to never underestimate the power of a buffalo: They can run up to 35 mph and turn faster than a horse.

Intelligent and ever vigilant, the buffalo can determine which pickup truck is Yearout’s on the horizon. She was driving the cube truck – which contains pellets or miniature cakes – and her wild bison were trained to run when they heard the truck bump and stumble along the prairie trails.

For people who didn’t grow up with buffalo, her visitors were curious about what the prairie sounds like when moms talk to their babies. Do they have their own special language when newborns run around?

“They definitely have a language,” Yearout said. “I mean, the grunt of the bison, where cattle usually bawl.

“They will grunt for their calves and grunt back and forth. During the breeding season, big bulls growl. It’s really deep… so they definitely have their own language.

As the buffalo gather near Yearout’s truck, these sounds are startling: the van dropping the cake cubes, the moms talking to the babies, and the deafening silence of the 2,000-pound animals sliding through the prairie grass and munching .

The grunts are loud, as are the sighs when babies respond to their mothers.

“It’s kind of like you and I talking,” Yearout said. “It’s their way of communicating. You can tell when someone is struggling. They make noise and sounds – they communicate – and let you know there is life on the prairie.

“You may hear them before you see them, depending on how high the grass is.”

But always, always keep your attention on the animals.

“It’s a wild animal,” Yearout said. “There is no such thing as a pet buffalo. They have horns, they know how to use them.

“You have to treat them with respect.”

How do you see the buffalo?

You are invited to observe the buffaloes if you stay on the roads of the canton. The area is in open range. Take US 160 west from Medicine Lodge to Milepost 207; turn left and take Aetna Road about 15 miles south to Cottage Creek Road, turn left and go another four to five miles to see the buffalo.

Do not get out of your vehicle. Stay on municipal roads. Be respectful of the buffalo.

For more information or to arrange group tours, contact Eva Yearout at 620-247-6465.