EDMONTON – Parks Canada is searching for those responsible for shooting and killing two bison at Elk Island National Park.
The bison were killed near the north entrance of the park on either October 17th or 18th.
One of the animals was then dragged along the highway to a field about 800 metres north of the park, where some of the meat was removed.
Parks Canada said a white Dodge pickup truck with extra grill lights and a rooftop light bar was seen in the area and may have been involved the killings.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact Parks Canada at 1-877-852-3100.
Elk Island National Park is 50 kilometres east of Edmonton.
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It’s estimated that there were once about 60 million bison in North America, but the animals were almost completely wiped out about a century ago when they were hunted for nothing more than their tongues or their horns.
At the turn of the last century, the last large herd of wild bison on the Montana plains was bought by the Canadian government and moved to what would become the Elk Island park.
In recent years, bison have been shipped from Elk Island around North America in an effort to restore the animals to the landscape.
With files from The Canadian Press