Joe Kahlo
For the first time in roughly 150 years, a bison has been born on the land at Wanuskewin Heritage Park.
The female bison was born on Earth day, the first from the herd reintroduced from extinction at Wanuskewin Heritage Park last year. The bison has genetic links to the Yellowstone herd. According to Wanuskewin officials, the occasion marks the first bison born on their ancestral land since before the 1876 signing of Treaty Six and the local extinction of the species.
The following weeks brought more good news as two more bison calves were born, watch them play here:
Wanuskewin CEO Darlene Brander said the birth is “a historic moment in Wanuskewin’s timeline.”
There used to be approximately 30 million plains bison in North America, but over-hunting by European settlers nearly wiped them out. Bison were brought back to Wanuskewin Heritage Park courtesy of a $5 million private donation to the park and an initiative it undertook in 2017 called Thundering Ahead.
Brander said Indigenous elders had been trying to bring bison back to the park for 40 years and “there was a lot of joy going on” when they learned of the birth.
“We have been waiting for this day at Wanuskewin for a very long time,” she said.
“When you take in the COVID-19 pandemic and all the implications of it and how it impacted our lives, to hear about this ray of hope through the baby bison being born at the park, it was incredibly significant.”
Wanuskewain welcomed 11 Plains bison to the park in December 2019. Six calves came from Grasslands National Park in southern Saskatchewan and five animals — a bull and four pregnant cows — came from a ranch in South Dakota.
Felix Thomas, the Wanuskewin board chair and co-chair of the Thundering Ahead capital campaign, said every birth “is part of the circle of life and signals progress.”
More baby bison are expected in the spring, though Brander would not say how many.
One of the things elders have taught her is to not count her eggs before they hatch, she said.
Wanuskewain welcomed 11 Plains bison to the park in December. Six calves came from Grasslands National Park in southern Saskatchewan and five animals — a bull and four pregnant cows — came from a ranch in South Dakota.
