Alberta bison roam a new home in Montana
After more than 100 years of trying to preserve the bison in North America, conservationists are relocating 70 of the species from Canada to their ancestral home in Montana – the second such move in three years.
The plains bison – 35 female and 35 male – come from Elk Island National Park in Alberta, where herds of the animals have been raised in conservation since the species faced near global extinction in the early 20th century.
“It’s really been recovery central for plains bison and wood bison in North America,” said Stephen Flemming, superintendent at Elk Island National Park.
Despite a previously abundant bison population on the continent, overhunting and the settling of the West in the late 1800s all but wiped out the animal, leaving fewer than 200 by the turn of the century. In response to the dwindling numbers, several private citizens in Canada and the United States began herding bison in an attempt to preserve the species.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/alberta-bison-roam-a-new-home-in-montana/article2313940/
