Adam Zier-Vogel / Parks CanadaIn some incredibly welcome good news, The first bison calves for 140 years have been born in Canada’s oldest national park.
Three calves have been born to one bison mother in the western province of Alberta.
Conservationists at Banff National Park say they hope that seven more calves will follow soon.
BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENTIntroducing Calf #1Born Earth Day, 2017Proud offspring of Cow #10 and first bison born in the Banff…
Posted by Banff National Park on Tuesday, 25 April 2017
A herd of 16 bison, including ten pregnant females were successfully reintroduced to the park this February in a move to save the population.
Bison were hunted almost to extinction in 19th Century, so sad considering there used to be around 30 million in Canada alone.
#banffbison calves are taking their first steps. To give them some space we've issued an area closure around and restricted camping within 400m of the Bison Soft Release Pasture. http://ow.ly/NKvv30baJgs
Posted by Banff National Park on Wednesday, 26 April 2017
Now only about a quarter of a million remain on government controlled land for conservation and on private farms to be bred for meat.
Banff’s resource conservation manager Bill Hunt told the BBC the females are ‘doing a great job’ and nursing well.
He said:
The bison moms know what they’re doing. Our staff are in the woods carefully hiding from the sidelines to see if everything’s going well.
#BREAKING: As part of the larger initiative to reintroduce #bison, the 1st bison calf was born in @BanffNP in + 140 years… on #EarthDay! pic.twitter.com/biFLhMGrHF
— Minister C. McKenna (@ec_minister) April 25, 2017
The bison are being kept in soft-release enclosed pastures under observation until the summer of 2018.
There is hope for the bison populations in Banff yet!
