Here He Is! Baby Bison Debuts at Lehigh Valley Zoo

The American bison born last week at the Lehigh Valley Zoo debuted in front of the media, gamboling close to his mother's side Tuesday in the Trexler Nature Preserve.

At least zoo officials think the calf is male. They haven't gotten closen enough yet to examine the baby bison because they want to give it time to bond with its mother, said President Richard Molchany.

The bison's birth caught zoo officials by surprise. They didn't even know one of the cows was pregnant until the calf was discovered the morning of April 16 or 17, during a routine check.

"It's very difficult to tell," said zookeeper Richard Rosevear. The zoo had brought in two fertile females to breed with Big Boy, the last bison to have been born at the zoo in 2004.

The calf's birthdate, first reported by Lehigh County officials as April 16, now shares the same April 17 birthday as Gen. Harry C. Trexler, the local industrialist who helped save the bison from extinction by creating the Trexler Game Preserve in 1906.

With the addition of this latest bison, it brings the zoo's herd to 11. The zoo's goal is to have 15 bison, Mochany said.

Lehigh County officials Tom Muller, director of administration, and Glenn Solt, director of general services, were on hand to introduce the baby bison, the first to be born at the zoo in almost a decade.

Officials said the birth at the zoo, which is owned by the county, is the result of a bison management plan implemented under former county executive Don Cunningham.

Cunningham, now president of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development, joked that his political legacy may be letting the bison reproduce.