Bison Futé

Indian Chief Bison Futé in France and ...

Smart Buffalo is known in France as the clever Indian who guides frustrated drivers around jams proposing non-congested roads in times of heavy traffic.

... grazing buffalos at Freiburg's Mundenhof (©BZ/Thomas Kunz)

In contrast, here at Freiburg's vivarium Mundenhof a herd of four buffalo cows and one bull - called bison in German - happily and quietly lives on local grass and herbs.

Two years ago, Freiburg's Sister Committee in Madison, Wisconsin, together with garden experts at Mundenhof, proposed to present some home fodder to those local buffalos by sowing prairie grass on the site of Freiburg's vivarium. In spring, Red Baron had drafted a text about the Madison-Freiburg partnership project and sent it to the Badische Zeitung. He was then contacted by Claudia Förster, who took over the task of reporting. In the meantime, the Prairie Project was the topic at a Stammtisch of the Freiburg-Madison-Gesellschaft on June 7.

Today the Badische Zeitung published Claudia Förster's long-awaited article titled Heimatgefühle für die Bisons (A Sense of Home for the Buffalos). Although the famous Sommerloch (summer slump) in the news is presently filled with verbal escalations between North Korea and President Trump, we are so happy to read about innocent buffalos and prairies.

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