CLAYDON, Sask.—It’s as if they never left.
Eleven years after 50 purebred plains bison were re-introduced to a rolling patch of prairie grass and sagebrush in the southwest corner of Saskatchewan, the herd is thriving.
In 2003, the shaggy beasts were trucked in from Elk Island National Park in Alberta to the Old Man on His Back Prairie and Heritage Conservation Area, a 5,300-hectare parcel of grassland south of Swift Current.
There are now 70 females and four bulls in the herd. The success has meant that the program can send calves to other areas that need a fresh infusion of purebred animals and to producers who are trying to grow their numbers as well.
“They really look at home when you seem them out there grazing,” says Natalie Nikiforuk, the natural areas manager for the Nature Conservancy of Canada, which owns the land along with the Saskatchewan government.
