A new female baby bison recently born at the world’s oldest zoo in Vienna has been named Calamity Jane in honour of the legendary Wild West frontierswoman.

The baby bison at Schonbrunn Zoo in the Austrian capital Vienna was named after famous American frontierswoman, sharpshooter and raconteur Calamity Jane.

The female bison currently has orange fur but it will turn brown within six months. It was born on 15th April 2021.

Zoo Director Stephan Hering-Hagenbeck said: “Our bison offspring are already experiencing their first big adventures. They run and jump through the facility.

“The young animal is still quickly tired from romping around and it keeps taking short naps in the bark mulch or sand – mostly near mother Yvonka.”

Little Calamity Jane’s father is Menewa, a bull born in the Tiergarten Schonbrunn Zoo in 2011.

The original Calamity Jane was one of the rowdiest and most adventurous women in the 19th century known for her tomboyish fashion style who offered help and compassion to many people in need in the Old West.

According to the zoo’s press release North American bison herds were brought to the brink of extinction by European settlers in America.

Only 500 bison out of 60 million, which ensured the survival of the indigenous people thanks to their meat and fur, were left after they were mercilessly hunted to the brink of extinction by European settlers.

Zoo director Stephan Hering-Hagenbeck said: “Today the bison population is stable. But the former ‘grassland kings’ inhabit only one percent of their original habitat.”

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) there are currently around 18,000 wild bison today.

Out of these, two large herds consisting of almost 5,000 animals live in the Yellowstone National Park located in the northwest corner of the US states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

Calamity Jane who once ran an inn on her farm which was located in the vicinity of the national park area served as an inspiration for the name of the newly born female bison.