'The owners of a small bison herd near Flagstaff were surprised Saturday morning to find one of their rare white buffaloes had given birth to something even rarer: a white calf.
A white calf is a one-in-10 million occurrence, said Keith Davis, a spokesman for Spirit Mountain Ranch.
'This is so rare specifically because she was born white,' Davis said. 'The others were born red (like normal buffaloes) and turned white.'
The birth of a white bison is meaningful for many Native American tribes, especially Plains Indians such as the Lakota, who consider it a symbol of rebirth when the world's people are in troubled times.
'The white buffalo is such a phenomenon because they are so rare,' said Dena Riley, who owns the ranch with her husband, Jim.
None of her buffaloes is albino but rather a mutation of the usual fur color of dark brown to black, Riley said. Of 11 bison on the ranch, four are white, not including the newborn.
The animals on the ranch are also pure bison, proven by DNA testing at a California lab, she added, and not a mix of bison and cattle, known as beefalo. That mixture more often results in white offspring, she said.
The ranch was moved onto its 5-acre site near the San Francisco Peaks in December 2001, Riley said, and has had visitors from around the globe to see white bison.'
Arizona Republic
