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Found At Last -Tfco Lost BisonThe wod bison, grmnddaddy ofthe familiar plains buffalo, big-g*cr (9 feet high, 12 feet long. 2,300 pounds), blacker, and wool'her, once ranged in millions from ths Horn Mountains in Canada's subarctic to the Colorado plateaus. But such was the slaughter as civilization moved westward that in the US. the wood bison did not live out the nineteenth century; only in Canada did a few hundred, protected by Jaw, struggle Into the twentieth century. *The decline of the survivors began in 1906, when Canada, outsmarting a reluctant U.S. Congress, bought the last surviving herd of plains buffalo in the U.S., loaded them snto cattle ears, and shipped them 1.2»’0 miles to Warnwnght, Alta,Some years later a genetically ignorant Ottawa bureaucrat added the plains bison to the herd of wood bison. The newcomer* swamped the wood bison. By 1949, inbreeding had left no known pure-blooded bison atha-tavae rhoads — the zoological name of the woodland species.For years, hope lingered that maybe in a remote valley some of the wood bison had escapedhybridization. but none wasaver fotukt , - . .Then in 1957 wildlife officers, taking an aerial census of buffalo, spotted some animals in the northwestern corner of tha Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Alberta. They were 75 miles from the nearest hybrid herd, separated from it by m ;s-keg swamps and lakes that areimpassable except n w.nter.They were big and black; eouJd they be unhybridized wood buffalo?Last year a ground expedition crossed the muskeg to find out.Five bison were shot and brought back to Ottawa for study. Finally, last month, a zoologists’ report confirmed the borne These were pure-blooded wood buffalo, indeed.Now, Canadian conservationists have launched a crash program to find the animals a new and isolated range where they could survive and even rebuildtheir ranks. Once the site has been selected, a wintertime trac-tor-train expedition will cross the frozen muskeg barrier to bring out young cows and bulls to start new herds. The old herd will be left to continue its fight tor racial survival. Not far from the wood buffalo’s present range, the whooping crane (world population: 40) nests and battles for its right to a place on the planet.■ .i — ,i —s . ■ — e
Newspaper Details
Birtle Eye Witness
Birtle, Manitoba, CA
Tue, Nov 22, 1960
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Kevin S.
CA 28 Jul 2021
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