Wild Buffalo Range in Banff Once Again

Wild buffalo roam once again in Banff National Park after one hundred and forty years.  Small numbers ranged in what is now Banff National Park for roughly 10,000 years before they were nearly hunted to extinction and before the Park was created in 1885.

According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, it is estimated that there were 30 million Plains Bison (commonly called buffalo) in North America before the Europeans came.  They were extirpated from Canada by 1888.  Nearly all of the Plains Bison alive today are descendants of the last 116 Plains Bison.

Now due to conservation efforts there are between 350,000 and 400,000 Plains Bison in North America. While they live mostly on farms and ranches, it is estimated that 1500 to 2000 live in conservation herds in Canada.

There was a small display herd in a paddock in Banff National Park for one hundred years. It was removed in 1997.  A year and a half ago, a small herd was transported from Elk Island National Park east of Edmonton, to a fenced pasture 40 km. north of Banff townsite.  You can watch the journey from Elk Island to Banff here: 

This included ten cows, some of which were pregnant and six bulls.  After two calving seasons, there are now 31 bison in the herd.  Last week, the gate was opened and the thirty-one buffaloes walked free under the cover of darkness into the 1200 sq km reintroduction zone in the remote eastern slopes of Banff National Park.  GPS collars and will be monitored.  You can see the release here:

Since Bison are a keystone species, they will change the food web and the landscape that they live in so that biodiversity will increase.  They improve grazing for elk because they leave fertilized grasses in their wake.  They also open the forest for birds and small mammals.  Birds used the hair from the heavy shedded coats to build nests. The bison also provide food for predators such as grizzly bears and wolverines and scavengers.

 In this video which was made when the buffalo were brought from Elk Island, Chief Kurt Buffalo from Samson Cree Nation speaks about the significance of bringing the buffalo back to its natural surroundings. “It’s about restoring the balance,” he says.  

He also speaks about the modern day “Buffalo Treaty” (read it here) between many First Nations.  This is a treaty of “Cooperation, Renewal and Restoration to “honour, recognize, and revitalize” the relationship with buffalo and to allow it to be free-ranging and wild once again.  It opens with a description of the relationship between the First Nations and the Buffalo stating, “For all those generations BUFFALO has been our relative.  BUFFALO is part of us and WE are part of BUFFALO culturally, materially, and spiritually.  Our on-going relationship is so close and so embodied in us that BUFFALO is the essence of our holistic eco-cultural life-ways.”

Parks Canada has been working in partnership with many First Nations on this and other projects.  As people work together to restore the buffalo to its natural habitat and renew their relationships with the buffalo, they are also building relationships with each other.  The buffalo will change the land through its relationship with the rest of life that shares the terrain.  This new story is one that returns to the old stories of respecting relationships in all of life and this renewal of relationships is bringing healing to our land.