COSTA MESA : Fairgrounds Buffalo Gets Indian Name

The bison born at the county fairgrounds finally has a name: Tatonka.

The name was selected from more than 1,000 suggestions made as part of a christening contest run by the fairgrounds. Tatonka was born May 11 to Becky, a bison refugee from the Buffalo Ranch in Irvine, which closed earlier this year.

“Buffy” was the name suggested most, perhaps because for the first 20 days of the animal’s life he was thought by livestock caretakers to be female. No one could get close enough to be sure because Becky growled in warning, explained fair spokeswoman Georgia Cluver.

Finally, nature called attention to the animal’s gender. “We saw the way it relieved itself, and it relieved itself like a male,” Cluver said.

Suggestions for the animal’s name poured in from around the Southland and as far away as Japan, Cluver said. The panel of four judges plugged their ears to the choruses of “Buffy” and picked “Tatonka.” It’s a Native American word for bison that was used in the film “Dances With Wolves,” Cluver said Thursday when the name was announced.

Becky and Tatonka live on Centennial Farm, a small working farm at the fairgrounds.