Wood Bison Bulls en Route to Newly-Wild Female Herd, as Part of Conservation Effort
Associated Press
May 26, 2015
This May 2013 file photo shows wood bison at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage. A herd of female bison bred at the center were re-introduced into the wild in Alaska’s Interior earlier this year. Now several bulls are en route to join them by barge.
Loren Holmes / ADN
FAIRBANKS — Four bison bulls are making their way toward an experimental mating herd established this spring near the far western Interior town of Shageluk.
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports the male wood bison from the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center near Anchorage were loaded Saturday onto a barge headed down the Tanana and Yukon rivers in the final phase of a 20-year plan to re-establish the mammal where it was prevalent a century ago.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game spokeswoman Cathie Harms says their four-day trip will take them to a herd of 100 cows and calves that were flown there in April.
Harms says males weren’t needed right away and could take the slower, cheaper river route.
If the herd is successful, 16 bulls will be added.
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