Fort Stanwix Makes Baby Bison an Honorary Junior Ranger

Zoo Director Ted Fox accepts the Honorary Junior Ranger certificate on behalf of Madison.

Rosamond Gifford Zoo

The Rosamond Gifford Zoo bison care staff accept several gifts on behalf of baby Madison, from the National Park Service.

Rosamond Gifford Zoo

Rangers from the National Park Service at Fort Stanwix went to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, NY to visit baby bison Madison on his 2-month birthday - and they came bearing gifts! Rangers Dan Umstead and Arielle Goellner brought a certificate and patch naming Madison an Honorary Junior Park Ranger, a framed history of the bison symbol used on the seal of the U.S. Department of the Interior and the National Park Service, a Junior Ranger Hat, and a plush Buddy Bison toy, which Zoo Director Ted Fox and bison care staff accepted on Madison's behalf. Madison and his National Mammal family seemed very excited!

The calf is the second baby to be born at the zoo to bisons Sue and Harley. American bison once numbered in the millions, but bison came close to extinction by 1900, when only about 1,000 remained. Conservation efforts led by the Bronx Zoo have restored the population to about 500,000 in zoos, preserves and protected parklands. In 2016, the American bison was named the U.S. National Mammal.

Over the course of the past century, the American bison (Bison bison) was saved from extinction and set upon a path of recovery and conservation. The Department of the Interior (DOI) has contributed significantly to bison restoration and conservation, currently managing 21 plains bison herds in 14 states, for a total of approximately 12,000 bison on 4.7 million acres of land, including 12 herds managed by the National Park Service (NPS) in ten parks.

The seal of the Department of the Interior, dated March 3, 1849, the day of its creation.

The bison seal of the U.S. Department of the Interior dates to 1917. It consists of a male bison with its head and body in a left position, standing on a prairie, with mountains and a rising sun in the background. The National Park Service arrowhead was authorized as the official National Park Service emblem by the Secretary of the Interior on July 20, 1951. While not spelled out in official documents, the elements of the emblem symbolized the major facets of the national park system, or as Director Conrad L. Wirth put it, "what the parks were all about." The Sequoia tree and bison represented vegetation and wildlife, the mountains and water represented scenic and recreational values, and the arrowhead represented historical and archeological values.

Baby bison Madison was born on May 9, 2019 at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo.

Rosamond Gifford Zoo