This post examines the recent
reintroduction of Bison to Banff National Park. The rewilding process ties in
with material I learnt last year at UCL in my Ecology module and the overarching
theme of this blog, which examines people and their connection to the land.
Banff National Park is located in the Rocky
Mountains, in Alberta - about a 10 hour drive inland from UBC. It is Canada’s
oldest national park and famous for its beautiful moraine lakes and sweeping grasslands.
The American bison, the largest land animal
native to North America, were the dominant herbivores in Banff for thousands of
years. There were over 30 million of them in North America when the first
European settlers arrived, with a vast range stretching from Canada to Mexico;
the Pacific Northwest to the Appalachian Mountains. However, by the end of the 19th
century the bison had been hunted to near extinction and by around 1850 they had
disappeared from Banff National park.
Bison are important both ecologically and
socially. Ecologically, their grazing is key to maintaining the North American
tallgrass prairie ecosystem. Socially, bison have provided indigenous peoples
with food and materials for shelter and tools for hundreds of years. They are
also considered sacred to many tribes and are indivisible from their heritage,
culture and religions.
In an attempt to restore the grassland
ecosystem and as a gesture of indigenous reconciliation, bison are being
reintroduced into the Banff backcountry.
In February this year, Parks Canada successfully relocated a small heard
of wild plains Bison from Elk Island National Park.
Today, on the 25th April, the
first bison calf has been born in Banff in over 140 years.
