Free-ranging Sask. bison herd begins to make comeback
A bison herd that makes its home in Prince Albert National Park is starting to show signs of population growth after more than a decade of decline.
The Sturgeon River plains bison herd is one of the few free-ranging bison herds in North America.
A decade ago, the herd was about 450 strong, but that number has been dropping. As a result, Parks Canada has been watching the bison closely.
Digit Guedo, an ecologist at Prince Albert National Park, said that monitoring the herd can be quite tough.
"They are very wary of human presence," she said. "It takes very little for them to run off and hide in the forest."
The herd began to go into notable decline in 2008 when an anthrax outbreak that affected the bison in Prince Albert and surrounding areas. Other elements like climate, flooding and hunting have also affected the population over the years.
A Plains Bison cow and her calf stand near the Jonasson Flats trailhead in Prince Albert National Park. (Glen & Rebecca Grambo via CBC News)
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Indigienous people have a treaty right to hunt the Sturgeon River plains bison herd for spiritual and traditional reasons. Parks Canada works with neighbouring land owners and neighbouring nations to protect the bison population.
This relationship appears to have been productive, Guedo said, the bison population is showing signs of recovering.
"We are having more recruitment back into the herd that means that the herd is doing well," Guedo said. "There's more energy being allocated to offspring and if that trend continues, we should see the trend continue to improve over time."
Guedo suggested those who would like to see the herd visit the west side of Prince Albert National Park.
"There are some great trail systems through that side of the park where the bison use as part of the range," she said.
A burn program currently in place in the park is designed to increase grassland available to the bison, so they can expand their range.
This article, written by Adeoluwa Atayero, was originally published for CBC News.
