By Chloe Betts & Ethan Powell
Our Yellowstone Forever instructors asked for volunteers and Ethan and I were the first to raise our hands. Five minutes later the two of us were spinning around in the middle of a field with a giant antenna listening for the “beep beep” of a buffalo. After a few minutes we became convinced the instructors were playing a prank on us.
Nevertheless, we continued pressing buttons, spinning in a circle, and listening for the buffalo’s magic necklace to communicate with us. The instructors told us if we were able to hear the “beep beep” we would be rewarded. The greatest reward of all. We would be able to pick up the buffalo’s poop.
Motivated by the glory and prestige we would experience once we heard the buffalo, we kept spinning. We were the head detectives in a very weird Netflix crime show and we were about to catch the criminal.
Unfortunately, we did not catch the criminal. We could not hear the buffalo. You can’t win them all.
We handed in our badges along with the radio telemetry equipment we were using to locate the collared buffalo and saluted our instructors for the opportunity.
Ethan and I were now jobless, poopless, and ashamed. We did what all jobless, poopless, and ashamed people do and started taking pictures of the buffalo in the distance. Teary eyed we contemplated the one that got away. The mysterious buffalo who was wearing a collar with a radio transmitter. Some scientist somewhere had put that radio collar on that buffalo so they could study her health. And we couldn't find her. We began to sing sad cowboy songs and right as we were going to set up a campfire, our instructor heard the signal through the radio transmitter.
Our entire group gathered around to hear the mystical beeping coming from the antenna. We had all just won the lottery and would now be able to collect our reward. Poop. We collected the bison scat and, basking in glory, delivered it to the lab.
Detective Ethan and I learned a very special lesson that day. I am not exactly sure what that lesson was, but we got to scoop bison poop so it was all worth it.
