Bison to roam free in Saskatchewan park
Last Updated Mon, 13 Mar 2006 10:44:09 EST
CBC News

A herd of plains bison from Alberta will be released within weeks in Saskatchewan to roam free in a national park.

Seventy bison from Elk Island National Park, about 45 kilometres east of Edmonton, were shipped to Grasslands National Park in southern Saskatchewan before Christmas.

Plains bison are the largest land mammals in North America. (CP Photo/Jeff McIntosh)
Since then, the animals, the largest land mammals in North America, have been exploring their new surroundings in a 16-hectare holding facility.

Parks Canada officials say they will be let loose within weeks in a 11,000-hectare chunk of the Grasslands park.

The Saskatchewan park, which is located near the Saskatchewan-Montana border, is one of biggest areas of undisturbed mixed prairie grassland habitat left in the country.

Once numbering in the millions, plains bison were hunted to near-extinction in the late 1800s.
More than 250,000 plains bison now live on commercial ranches in Canada, but only about 750 of the animals live in their natural setting, mostly in national parks in Alberta and Saskatchewan.