44 Elk Island wood bison sent to Alaska as part of conservation efforts

Much like cattle, 44 wood bison were separated, sorted, run through chutes and onto a truck Monday morning.

They’ll make a roughly 40-hour drive from Alberta’s Elk Island National Park east of Edmonton to their new home in Alaska’s Minto Flats State Game Refuge.

“We run them through our system here and give them a little bit of a tranquilizer just to help them on their journey,” Elk Island National Park superintendent Dale Kirkland said.

“From there, they batch back up and we load them onto the truck.”

The park does annual transfers, alternating between wood and plains bison every other year.

This is the fourth time Elk Island has sent the animals to Alaska. They’ve also done Indigenous transfers to First Nations.

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“We’ve been central to global conservation bison efforts around the world,” Kirkland said.

Biologists in Alaska say more than 170 bison now live wild in the state and another 50 live in captivity. They’re either from Elk Island or descendants.

“Wood bison used to widely roam across northern landscapes and with the project here, working with the state of Alaska to help restore these animals carries a real deep sense of purpose and meaning,” Kirkland said.

Kirkland says plans are being made to send more bison to Alaska in 2028.

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