Anyone looking for a home where the buffalo roam could do a lot worse than focus their search up the Forestry Trunk Road that starts a mere 13 kilometres west of Cochrane.
Travelling up that road eventually leads to Ya Ha Tinda ranch, which butts up against the release area for a pilot project to restore plains bison into the wild in an effort to hopefully re-establish the magnificent beasts into their traditional grazing grounds.
Plains bison were plentiful here 150 years ago, and if Dillon Watt, the Bison Reintroduction Project Manager has his way, they will soon be returned to their former glory.
Watt outlined the work he and his team have done for the bison at a presentation at the RancheHouse in Cochrane last week, a part of the MD of Bighorn’s "Living in the Natural Environment" series.
Sixteen Plains Bison from Elk Island National Park (near Edmonton) were moved to the Eastern Slopes of Banff National Park in 2017, in the Panther Valley.
Watt said those 16 were carefully selected according to genetic diversity and were screened carefully for disease.
The bison were allowed to roam freely in a designated area of the park and they did well, so were released from their enclosure the next year.
“So bison have been free roaming since 2018,” he said.
There are135 there now, and more calves coming in May.
Monitoring revealed they had a distinct preference for moving in a northeasterly direction, which, should they breach the fences, would put them directly on course for the area around Ya Ha Tinda ranch. They are essentially on the eastern boundary of the park now.
Researchers are not sure why they prefer the northeasterly direction, but it may have something to do with instinctual patterns.
Watt said there’s been six “excursions” outside the national park since 2018. Monitoring the herd will be key. He said range expansion will need to be addressed.
The ultimate end goal is to have bison free roaming, as they were 150 years ago.
The return of bison is a small piece of a larger movement where bison are being returned to landscapes across North America.
“So it’s great – we’re restoring one of only five free ranging herds in the world,” Watt said.
Watt said the team has learned some interesting biological information about bison, with the help of a Masters student and a PhD student from Montana.
The Masters student found there is not much overlap between bighorn sheep and bison grazing preferences.
A common bison behaviour is known as wallowing, (or “dust baths”) where they roll around in the dirt, leaving behind a characteristic circular patch on the ground. Researchers aren’t completely sure but suspect it might have something to do with packing mud into their thick coats to relieve skin irritation from shedding their coats or to help ward off bugs.
Some of them are reactivating some wallows that were used by their ancestors 150 years ago. Researchers found old bones nearby, indicating (possibly) that they were re-opening traditional trails.
A PhD student from the University of Montana combined traditional knowledge with some carbon dating research to discover that bison in southern Alberta are inhabiting the feeding niche they had 150 years ago, preferring different species of plants at different times of the year.
By looking at carbon isotopes in bones from Waterton they can determine whether bison were eating prairie plants year round or a mix of prairie and mountain plants.
In addition to studying possible effects on other ungulates (sheep and elk) they’re also considering possible effects in predators like wolves.
So far, as far as Watt’s team is aware there’s only been a couple of predation events on calves.
He said taking an “eco-cultural approach” is key to the success of the project, since bison play such a crucial role in indigenous culture.
Last fall, for the first time in 145 years, groups representing the Treaty 7 Nations and Métis each had a chance to participate in a ceremonial bison hunt in Banff’s backcountry.
The pilot initiative was led by the Indigenous Advisory Circle (IAC) for Banff National Park – made up of the Bearspaw, Chiniki and Goodstoney First Nations, the Siksika, Kainai and Piikani First Nations, the Tsuut’ina First Nation and the The Rocky View Métis District of the Otipemisiwak Métis Government.
One bison was allocated per IAC member for a total of eight.
The last wild bison were seen in 1883 in the South Saskatchewan watershed (the Bow River is part of the South Saskatchewan).
