Yellowstone staff 'unable to locate' rare white buffalo calf: officials

A rare white American buffalo calf, which is considered sacred to some Indigenous people, has not been seen since its birth earlier this month, Yellowstone National Park confirmed.

In a June 28 statement from the national park, officials said the calf has not been since it was born June 4 in Lamar Valley, noting that staff has been “unable to locate” the animal.

Yellowstone officials have yet not responded to TODAY.com’s inquiry as to whether or not they believe the calf is still alive. In the statement, officials noted that one in five bison calves die “shortly after birth due to natural hazards” each spring.

Prior to the birth of the calf, there had never been record of a white buffalo born in Yellowstone. The incredibly rare birth of a white buffalo in the wild occurs once in every 1 million births, national park officials said in the statement.

To some of the Native American population, the buffalo calf's birth signaled both a blessing and a warning to the world.

“I never thought this would happen in our generation,” Chief Arvol Looking Horse, the spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Oyate, said in an interview that aired on TODAY June 27.

Yellowstone Park White Buffalo (Jordan Creech / AP)

Looking Horse said the birth is seen as the second coming of the White Buffalo Calf Woman, who first appeared thousands of years ago when buffalo were scarce and people were hungry, NBC News reported. She taught members of the Lakota to pray and honor the Earth, and promised to return one day as a white bison calf with black eyes, nose and hooves.

On June 26, Indigenous groups burned sage, sang songs and danced in a ceremony in the national park honoring the calf's birth, according to NBC News, where the calf's name was revealed: Wakan Gli, or Return Sacred.

Yellowstone Park White Buffalo (Erin Braaten / Dancing Aspens Photography via AP)

“It’s a warning for us to do something,” Looking Horse said on TODAY.

Looking Horse had hoped the White Buffalo Calf Woman would not return in his lifetime, as it would be a sign that the world needs healing, according to NBC News. When a white calf was born in Wisconsin in 1994, he said he remembered feeling awe and dread as scientists began speaking out about climate change.

“It just brings tears into my eyes every time I think about it because this shouldn’t happen in our time and it did,” Looking Horse told TODAY.

Looking Horse also shared the lesson to take away from the birth: “Mother Earth is sick and has a fever. And at this time, this is a spiritual awakening.”

Yellowstone Park White Buffalo (Sam Wilson / AP)

The calf was first photographed on June 4, according to NBC News, when tour guide Jordan Creech was leading visitors through the park and stumbled upon the herd with a new arrival.

After snapping the photo, Creech showed the picture to his boss, who told him it was a white buffalo.

“That’s not like an unusually white bison calf,” Creech recalled his boss telling him while on TODAY. “That is a white bison.”

“It seemed unreal that I just was so lucky to be one of maybe a dozen people that got photographs of this thing, and I don’t think it’s been seen since,” Creech added.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com