{"id":1192519,"date":"2026-09-08T03:14:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T03:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1192519\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T03:14:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T03:14:17","slug":"canada-released-26-bison-into-banff-national-park-in-2017-the-herd-grew-rapidly-as-scientists-tracked-its-return-to-the-wild-world-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1192519\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada released 26 bison into Banff National Park in 2017; the herd grew rapidly as scientists tracked its return to the wild | World News"},"content":{"rendered":" ![\"Canada](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/canada-released-26-bison-into-banff-national-park-in-2017-the-herd-grew-rapidly-as-scientists-tracke.png\" "\\"Image")
In 2017, Parks Canada released 16 plains bison into Banff National Park, beginning a carefully monitored effort to restore the animals to a landscape where they had been absent for more than a century. The herd was initially kept in a soft-release pasture before being allowed to roam across a 1,200-square-kilometre reintroduction zone in 2018. What followed was rapid population growth and years of tracking as scientists monitored the bison’s health, movements and use of their new mountain habitat. According to a Parks Canada report, the population rose from 16 animals in February 2017 to 26 by the end of that year, 65 by 2021, and about 80 by autumn 2022. The five-year pilot recorded an average annual population growth rate of 33%. GPS and radio-collar monitoring also showed how the herd explored its surroundings, gradually establishing more predictable movement patterns while remaining largely within the designated reintroduction zone.<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s bison population grew after 2017<\/p>\n
Parks Canada’s figures show that the plains bison population in Banff National Park grew steadily during the five-year reintroduction pilot. Sixteen animals were translocated to the park in February 2017, with the population reaching 26 by the end of that year. It then increased to 36 in 2018, 39 in 2019, 56 in 2020 and 65 in 2021.By autumn 2022, the population had reached approximately 80 bison. Over the five-year pilot, Parks Canada recorded an average population growth rate of 33% a year, while natural mortality remained below 1% annually. The agency noted that growth was expected to slow as the mainly young founding animals aged and the herd’s sex ratio became more balanced.The reintroduction was closely monitored from the beginning. During the initial soft-release period, the bison remained in an enclosed pasture while Parks Canada staff monitored their condition and behaviour. In summer 2018, the animals were released into a 1,200-square-kilometre reintroduction zone, where monitoring continued as the herd explored its new surroundings.Radio collars were used to track the animals, with at least 10% of the population collared. The data showed that the bison explored 257 square kilometres of the reintroduction zone during the pilot, with 81.7% of that exploration in the first year. Their median daily movement was about 1.9 kilometres, while large and rapid movements declined by 51% after the first year.<\/p>\n
Parks Canada used fences to keep bison from leaving the zone<\/p>\n
As the bison became established in Banff, most remained within the designated reintroduction zone. By autumn 2022, the majority of the approximately 80 animals were also within 30 kilometres of the soft-release pasture where they had spent their first 18 months. Their annual home range contracted from 133.2 square kilometres to 92.9 square kilometres between the first and second years.Only four males dispersed outside the reintroduction zone during the pilot. Two were recaptured and relocated, while two were destroyed under the park’s bison excursion response plan. Parks Canada also used drift fences and low-stress herding, known as hazing, to manage movements. Two drift fences prevented movements outside the zone on 50 occasions, while hazing was used seven times.![\"Parks](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/parks-canada-used-fences-to-keep-bison-from-leaving-the-zone-br.jpg\" "\\"Image")
<\/p>\n
Image AI generated<\/p>\n
Bison spent more time at higher elevations<\/p>\n
The tracking data showed that the reintroduced bison used parts of Banff’s landscape differently from what the original habitat assessment had predicted. Parks Canada found that the animals spent more time at higher elevations, on steeper slopes, in shrubs and farther from water than expected. The bison also repeatedly returned to higher elevations during the peak growing season.Scat analysis indicated that forage at higher elevations was nutritionally superior and more palatable during summer than forage at lower elevations. Health monitoring found that the founder animals generally remained in good to very good body condition, parasite counts were low, and no sick animals were detected. Only two natural bison mortalities were recorded during the pilot, both involving wolf predation of newborn calves in spring 2020 and 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2017, Parks Canada released 16 plains bison into Banff National Park, beginning a carefully monitored effort to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1192520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3847],"tags":[25405,323198,323200,323199,323196,323197,209764,323195,323194,70,16,15,1717,323193],"class_list":["post-1192519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-animal-conservation","tag-banff-national-park","tag-bison-habitat","tag-bison-reintroduction","tag-gps-monitoring","tag-natural-habitat-restoration","tag-parks-canada","tag-plains-bison","tag-population-growth-rate","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wildlife","tag-wildlife-tracking"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117233247424393121","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1192519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1192520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1192519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1192519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1192519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}