Home on the range

Despite a disappointing overtime loss to Michigan, again, I had a good time in East Lansing this weekend. Things were different from previous football seasons, as expected, most notably the absence of a common sleeping ground (11F), a regression back to the dorms (which Fermilab has gotten me used to) and the lack of a good bar night (the lines were longer than graduation weekend). But it still felt great to hang out with friends I haven't seen in a while. (See attached photo as evidence.)
Today, I witnessed the annual Fermilab buffalo inoculation. Yes, there are a herd of about 50 buffalo here on site. Don't worry, they're not used for any crazy physics experiments. The story is that they're kept here to symbolize the frontier, implying that Fermilab is on the edge of the high-energy physics frontier. Pretty clever, eh?
Well today's medical exam was quite a scene. I've never seen a buffalo up close, not even in a zoo. I've learned that they are one tough animal, and when they're scared, contained inside a small metal holding cell and poked with needles, they don't like it one bit. Some bucked, banging their horns against the metal bars. Others looked so helpless, hissing loudly through their nostrils. It took 17 guys to run the series of doors and corrals the buffalo were steered through. A veterinarian stabbed each one in the back with a cocktail of vaccines and two grounds members cleaned the tags in the animals' ears, holding their heads steady with a metal nose ring. Everything was so loud. People yelling "Here she comes," or "This one's a jumper."
But the hardest part for me to handle was the separation of the mother buffalo from their children. Each fall, the babies are auctioned off to local farmers. I'd rather not think about what they use them for. After the medical checkups, the moms are sent back to the pasture and the children are steered toward a holding pen, where they stay until auction day. The moms pace around the holding pens, looking unsuccessfully for their babies. They cry out to them with a noise I've never heard before. Very heartbreaking.