Bison herd at Wanuskewin Heritage Park grows by six

A total of 24 bison now roam the plains of Wanuskewin Heritage Park with the arrival of six new baby calves.

“Wanuskewin in partnership with Parks Canada made arrangements to have six female bison from the Grasslands National Park,” said Darlene Brander, Wanuskewin Heritage Park Chief Executive Officer. “Little did we know that soon after we had secured them that we would have one bull and four pregnant females from the Yellowstone herd.”

Experts say 30 million plains bison once roamed the province until the late 1800s when the number dropped to a mere thousand. Brander said the remaining bison were then split between Canada at the Grasslands National Park and in the United States where they have the Yellowstone herd today.

The DNA running through these six baby bison is the closest to the bison found in Saskatchewan 150 years ago.

Brander said bison are “connectors” and this herd is bringing people into the park from all over the world.

“The joy on their faces when they tell us about what they saw,” said Brander. “The impact that the baby bison have it’s just phenomenal and it’s the reason we love doing our jobs here at Wanuskewin.”

“We knew that we wanted this but we weren’t sure quite how to go about it,” said Craig Thoms, Bison Manager. “Luckily enough, miracles have happened to bring those two groups into the park, 10 days apart.

The park hopes to continue growing the herd up to 50 over the next few years.