A buffalo has escaped an Iowa town and police are warning residents that it is injured and aggressive.
Police in the Des Moines suburb of Pleasant Hill responded to a report of an animal in the road on Saturday. The animal turned out to be a buffalo, and the owner told police it was being aggressive.
That proved to be the case when police and an animal rescue and control group attempted to capture the buffalo and return it to its owner's property. As a result of those efforts, “the buffalo became aggressive towards Pleasant Hill police, resulting in one shot from a shotgun being fired, wounding the buffalo,” police said in a Facebook post on Monday.
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The injured buffalo ran away. Police used drones and ATVs to search for it and called in buffalo experts. As of Tuesday morning, the buffalo was still on the loose in the town of about 11,000 people.
An escaped buffalo was spotted in Pleasant Hill, a suburb of Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024. The search for the animal, which is reportedly injured and aggressive, is entering its third day. (Madison Pottebaum via The Associated Press)
“If you see a buffalo, please do not approach it,” police urged on Facebook.
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Buffalo can weigh up to 2,650 pounds, but the Iowa animal looks tiny in photos, according to the National Geographic website, which says buffalo are often domesticated and are the largest animal in the Bobigny tribe, which also includes yaks, bison, African buffalo and various species of wild cattle.
