50 ***** "Oh, Ranger!" 



Yellowstone's now famous Thundering Herd. The park buffaloes actu 

 ally served in the filming of the motion picture of that name. 



By 1911 the so-called tame herd, which was not tame at all except 

 that it was provided with hay in winter and was kept under control by 

 the gamekeeper, had increased to 147 animals. In that year, hemorrhagic 

 septicemia attacked some of the younger animals and fifteen per cent 

 died. It was then that the rangers began vaccinating the buffaloes. Dudes 

 and Sageb rushers think this is another joke. Quite the contrary ! Three 

 times the disease has threatened the herd and each time it has been 

 checked by vaccination. One of the really strenuous jobs for the 

 ranger, when he has nothing to do until tomorrow, is rounding up the 

 buffalo calves, herding them into a corral, and vaccinating them with a 

 serum developed by the United States Bureau of Animal Industry. 



The Yellowstone herds are thriving. The "tame" herd has long 

 since outgrown the quarters at Mammoth and is located on the Lamar 

 River, except for a few specimens kept in the corral at Mammoth where 

 visitors can see them easily. This herd numbers more than nine hun 

 dred animals and would now have exceeded a thousand in strength had 

 not a considerable number of buffaloes been given away. The wild herd, 

 numbering around one hundred animals, roams the eastern section of the 

 park. It has never been under any kind of control. To feed the Yellow 

 stone buffaloes through the winter, it is necessary to raise a thousand tons 

 of hay each year on ranches within the park. If the rangers did not 

 feed the buffaloes they would range out of the park when the snows are 

 heavy. Once in a while a buffalo will do that. One day the rangers 

 received a frantic long-distance phone call from one of the town offi 

 cials of Gardiner, Montana. 



"Say, come down and get your buffaloes, will you?" he urged anx 

 iously. "Two are loose in our main street and business is at a standstill. 

 It's serious !" 



The situation in Gardiner, as the rangers found it, was not only 

 serious but funny. Two big buffalo bulls were parading up and down 



the main street. Not another creature 

 was stirring. Every door was closed, 

 every store was empty, every window 

 was full of faces peering apprehensively 

 at the new bosses of the town. There 

 was a sigh of relief when the rangers 

 drove the buffaloes back to the park. 

 Then Gardiner -came to life again. 



In 1923, Congress authorized the park 

 service to give away surplus buffaloes to 

 zoos, parks, and private individuals who 



