Naturalists Society

The Mighty Bison

Photo: mysteriesofcanada.com

Bison (Bison bison) are the largest mammals living in Canada. They have a large shoulder hump covered in ragged brown fur, a long mane on their head, neck, and shoulders, and short brown fur along their backside. Wood Bison males are larger than females, measuring from 1.7 to 1.8 m in height and weighing between 350 to 1,000 kg! Whereas the Plains Bison male has a height of 1.7 to 2.8 m and weighs 600 to 860 kg. The Plains Bison occurs with approximately 2,200 mature individuals in five isolated wild subpopulations in Canada. Of the Wood Bison currently,

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Did You Know? Photo: pc.gc.ca 11,000 individuals live in nine subpopulations. However, these still small numbers mean populations remain vulnerable to habitat loss, and diseases.

Before the 19th Century, millions of bison roamed the grasslands of the Canadian prairies. At this time the “Kings of the Prairie” were used for their meat and marrow for sustenance, their hides for shelter and clothing, their bones for tools, and their dung for fuel. After an absence of over a century on July 29, 2018, 31 bison were released from the soft-release pasture in Panther Valley in the Eastern

Slope of Banff National Park, and they now roam a 1,200 km2 reintroduction zone.

For more information:

https://www.wcscanada.org/ Wildlife/Bison/ https://naturecanada.ca/ news/blog/get-to-knowcanadas-buffalo/ https://luxtonfoundation.org /museum/bison-belong.html https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pnnp/ab/banff/info/gestionmanagement/bison https://albertawilderness.ca/ issues/wildlife/bison/ https://www.natureconserva ncy.ca/en/what-we-do/ resource-centre/featuredspecies/mammals/plainsbison.html

https://cpawsnab.org/bisonin-alberta/

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www.naturelethbridge.ca Did You Know?