Herd

"How do you move a 2,000-pound bison?" a rider on a horse next to me asked. The punch line to this joke: "You don't." Buffaloes don't herd easily. If pushed too fast, they lower their heads and charge at anyone dumb enough to get in the way. But that is exactly what we were trying to do -- about 150 riders and me as we trotted across a flat field on Antelope Island in the middle of Utah's Great Salt Lake.

The newly formed group of Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep barreled up rugged Olancha Peak last month, the 10 females and four males becoming the first new herd of the endangered animals reintroduced in California in 25 years. Once abundant throughout the region's alpine areas, the state's population of Sierra Nevada bighorn had dwindled to two herds by the 1970s. Their numbers have been devastated by disease spread by contact with domestic sheep and goats and unregulated commercial hunting.

A herd of up to 500 dugongs, a large, somewhat whalelike tropical mammal previously thought endangered in the Persian Gulf, has been sighted in a survey of the waterway, environment officials reported. Meteorological and Environmental Protection Administration officials said 300 to 500 of the mammals were spotted from helicopters east of Bahrain in two groups half a mile apart.

Conservationists battling illicit global trade in endangered species say at least 25,000 African elephants were slaughtered last year by criminal gangs eager to market the lucrative ivory from their tusks. The poachers' take has risen to alarming levels over the last six years, with about one in 17 wild elephants being felled in 2012, by some estimates. That is a pace that confronts some herds with extinction as elephant births are again being outpaced by the illegal kills. Protecting Africa's majestic mammals from the scourge of tusk hunters was a task conservationists thought they had mastered two decades ago after the 178 nations of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, banned crossborder ivory trade in 1989.

Thirty deer, the subject of proposals that they be shot, sterilized or allowed to die of disease, will instead be moved from a suburban regional park to a wilderness area and studied for stress, officials said Friday. The tiny herd of Columbian black-tailed deer, believed to be descendants of those hunted by Ohlone Indians before Europeans arrived in California, must be moved because of the drought and encroaching civilization, authorities said.

Woody Herman was in his big-band element Sunday evening as he led yet another edition of the New Young Thundering Herd through its paces at Pasadena City College. Though the sparsely filled Sexson Auditorium was hardly treated to vintage Woody, the 73-year-old "Road Father" did what he has long done best: guide and goad a talented group of young players through a series of ambitious, well-crafted charts.

Re "White House Rivals Running on Empty," Opinion, Jan. 25: William M. Arkin likens the major Democratic candidates to a herd of dairy cows, unthinkingly falling in behind establishment assumptions about the world. I don't think his unflattering assessment holds water. The Democratic candidates are in touch with reality. Arkin apparently is not. The reality is President Bush has convinced the American people that now that we have beaten the commies, we must set our sights on "terrorists."

After languishing for more than a year as virtual castaways on this scrubby tropical island in the eastern Caribbean, the shaggy remnants of a herd of llamas and alpacas from the high slopes of the Andes may soon be rescued under a plan put together by the World Society for the Protection of Animals. But the future welfare of the 130 or so survivors from a herd that originally numbered 268 is still uncertain as an embarrassed Antiguan government, the government of Peru, the entrepreneurial American importer of the animals and the protection society continue to haggle over an agreement to fly them to an Andean refuge.

Mist rises off the frosty dirt road. Two of California's magnificent mountains--Shasta in front, Lassen over the left shoulder--are snowy brilliant in the morning light as the small caravan winds its way uphill. Ahead, two deer spring from the brush and quickly vanish down the slope. Where did they come from? Where are they going? Those are questions Dave Smith may be able to answer within a couple of months after attaching radio transmitting collars to 24 does from the West Lassen herd recently.

It's 6 a.m., and the cowboys are already downing second and third cups of coffee, adjusting to a 35-degree morning. Slowly, a full moon and stars give way to hues of orange sky. And with daybreak, what had been obscured comes into clearer focus: hundreds of shaggy bison standing on an unfenced landscape that looks like it rolls on forever. Any other time of year, this herd of 2,600 would have a 23,000-acre swath of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve to roam. But for one week in November, it's time for the annual roundup in this place where man took a 5,500-year-old species to the brink of extinction and brought it back.

Who knew "American Idol's" new sudden-death round would be so satisfying? "One song, one chance, no mercy," Ryan Seacrest told us ominously. And certainly the five women eliminated from the competition after singing a song of their choosing from any genre Wednesday probably didn't find the proceedings terribly enjoyable. But it sure was a lot better than the general messiness we used to get during Las Vegas week. Here, if I've understood Seacrest correctly, is how it will work: Each Wednesday and Thursday night this week and next, 10 contestants will sing in front of the four judges and a large audience at the Mirage hotel in Las Vegas.

Rules? What debate rules? Both candidates at Wednesday night's presidential debate came out of the gate ignoring directions from moderator Jim Lehrer. Asked to “respond directly to what the governor just said about trickle-down” government spending, President Obama instead said he would “talk specifically about what I think we need to do” -- and spoke at some length about his education and energy policies. Trickle down? Never mind. When Obama finished, Lehrer turned to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

The worst U.S. drought in half a century and record feed prices are spurring farmers to shrink cattle herds to the smallest in two generations, driving beef prices higher. Beef output will slump to a nine-year low in 2013 after drought damaged pastures from Missouri to Montana, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates. The domestic herd is now the smallest since at least 1973, and retail prices reached a record last month, USDA data show. And one analyst estimates cattle futures may rise 8.1% to an all-time high of $1.35 a pound in the next 12 months.

He's been spotted out in the dusty wilds of Utah, lurking among the four-hoofed creatures on his hands and knees. He wears a funny suit with horns and a phony beard. And he's developing a public following. He is… Goatman. And he's baaaaaaaad... Wildlife authorities have expressed concern: What exactly is this guy doing  in the mountains of northern Utah dressed in a goat suit among a herd of wild goats? Is he an extreme wildlife enthusiast? Or someone on a deranged back-to-nature trip?

Like the man said, always be closing. In Cody Henderson's "The Bewildered Herd," now at Greenway Arts Alliance, everyone's after someone else's mental real estate. When he's not helping win an election, slick consultant Bingo (John Getz) is trying to keep his disaffected wife (Trace Turville) from divorcing him and his college-dropout daughter (Corryn Cummins) from running off with a deadbeat rocker (Derek Manson). Meanwhile, Grandma (Lisa Richards) smilingly insists that Bingo's father is still alive and worth loving.

Once a year, the sheepmen — white-haired, crinkly-eyed, some using walkers — pack into a cafe to share stories of herding bull-headed sheep amid furious snowstorms here in Nevada's Snake Valley, a forlorn patch of desert on the border with Utah. In the mythology of the American West, the sheepherder may be outshone by gunslingers and prospectors. But not when the sheepmen get together. Not tonight. Gusts rattled the walls of the Border Inn, much as they once pounded their desolate sheep camps, trailers so thinly insulated that the men sometimes awoke to a cupboard full of frozen eggs.

Late each autumn, a chill settles on the summer range of the Sherwin herd high in the Sierra, and snow flurries tell the deer it's time to start down the slopes to their winter home in the Owens Valley. That usually occurs in late October or early November, but if it were to happen earlier--say, during hunting season in that zone, Sept. 10 to Oct. 2--the result could be a slaughter.

When Tim McGaffic teaches people to herd cattle, he tells a story. It is based on a fairly straightforward analogy: Cattle are the persecuted, and the cowboys rounding them up are the persecutors. It is an analogy that helps people empathize with the animals' state of mind, said McGaffic, an Ignacio ranch consultant and educator on low-stress management techniques. "How would you feel if you lived in this little town and one day these black helicopters flew over the hill?" McGaffic asked.

Reporting from San Diego -- A postmortem examination has confirmed that Umoya, a 21-year-old elephant at San Diego Zoo Safari Park, was fatally attacked by another elephant, but other details of the death remain a mystery. No one witnessed the attack and it is unknown which elephant or elephants in the herd were responsible for Umoya's death or what may have prompted the deadly confrontation Nov. 17. Umoya had no visible injuries, but it was clear that the female African elephant had been hurt by what was initially termed an "aggressive interaction.