Situated between the snow-capped Canadian Rocky Mountains lies an expansive system of grassy, backcountry valleys perfect for a future herd of bison.

While there are currently no bison found in this area, Parks Canada is proposing to reintroduce a small herd of bison to a remote corner of Banff National Park in 2017. This reintroduction is part of a five-year, pilot project to assess the feasibility of longer- term bison restoration in the area.

What makes this reintroduction unique is that Parks Canada is timing the release with other conservation initiatives that would allow bison to thrive as a wild herd, such as restoring grassland habitats and populations of natural predators.

Over the course of the past century, the American bison (Bison bison) was saved from extinction and set upon a path of recovery and conservation.

The Department of the Interior (DOI) has contributed significantly to bison restoration and conservation, currently managing 19 plains bison herds in 12 states, for a total of approximately 11,000 bison on 4.6 million acres of land.

These DOI bison account for one-third of all plains bison managed for conservation in North America and are collectively vital to the long-term preservation of the species.

Although bison are no longer threatened by extinction, substantial work remains to restore the species to its ecological and cultural role on appropriate landscapes within its historical range.

For as long as humans have existed, we have always had connections with animals.

It seems that our fundamental relationship with animals is primarily utilitarian. We hunt deer for meat, we shelter chickens to harvest eggs and we sheer sheep for wool.

The list goes on and on, because we as humans depend profoundly on animals. The domestication of animals has brought substantial changes not only in our relationship with them, but has also influenced species as a whole—so much so that in some cases, domesticated animals have few similarities to their wild ancestors.

"We stand for wildlife"—a motto prominent on the Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS's) website. Established originally as the New York Zoological Society (NYZS) in 1895, WCS has over a century of dedicated experience protecting wildlife and habitats around the world.

Bison are one of the flagship species that has been a part of WCS's conservation portfolio for more than 100 years.

In 1905, when fewer than 1,000 bison remained in North America, the NYZS founded the American Bison Society (ABS) to help save bison from extinction.

Imagine crouching in the grass with a bison hide on your back while massive 2,000 pound animals graze a few feet from you.

Moments later, you bellow like a stressed calf, wanting the herd to follow the noise.

You continue to do so until you are close to a cliff and then you start running as fast as you can towards the cliff while a herd of 40 bison stampede behind you.

TBC's annual membership meeting. Photo courtesy of Jim Stone.

February 28, 2026

The InterTribal Buffalo Council (ITBC) was established in 1992 as a grassroots organization to restore bison to Tribal lands.

The ITBC coordinates with the National Park Service to facilitate the transfer of bison culled from national park lands to Tribal lands, facilitates educational programs and provides technical assistance to 56 Tribes.

Diagram showing bottleneck genetics. Further explained in the body of the article. NPS Photo.

January 24, 2026

By the beginning of the 1900s, bison were not only teetering on the edge of extinction, but they were also about to endure the ultimate genetic ordeal.

Think about the basic genetics you may have learned in school and every vocabulary term you needed to memorize.

Bison were about to be put to the ultimate test.

Karner blue butterfly in Emmons Creek State Fishery Area. Photo by Gregor Schuurman.

December 27, 2025

A tiny, rare blue butterfly with a one inch wing span is making a come-back in central Wisconsin, in part due to the largest land mammal in North America.

Originally ranging across 12 states from Maine to Minnesota and at sites in the Canadian province of Ontario, the federally endangered Karner blue butterfly is thriving at the 9,150 acre Sandhill State Wildlife Area in central Wisconsin.

Public domain photo

July 26, 2025

Have you ever tried an online search for the word "buffalo?"

If you do so by Google, you will see that there are over 1.3 trillion online references to that single word-buffalo!

NPS graphic.

June 28, 2025

Countless elements influence and threaten the health of wildlife species and the habitats they live in.

Disease, such as brucellosis, represents one of these aspects and can pose a significant risk to the conservation of species, especially a species such as the American bison.

Brucellosis is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Brucella abortus and is commonly transmitted between elk, bison and domestic livestock.

Photos courtesy of National Parks Service and Parks of Canada.

May 24, 2025

Were all these bison the same species, the same animal? Indeed, when are bison not exactly the same?

Through extensive long-term natural history studies and scientific investigations, even to the genetic and cellular levels, we now understand that there is one species of bison that is comprised of two subspecies in North America and another species of bison in Europe.

April 26, 2025

If someone asked you to describe the word "thanksgiving," what would you say?

Would it be a day to give thanks and be with friends and family? A day to watch football and eat a large turkey dinner?

Or would you describe the first Thanksgiving and possibly the more tragic events that followed for the American Indians?

Mach 22, 2025

The decimation of the North American bison from tens of millions of free roaming animals to fewer than one thousand by the beginning of the 20th century was a tragedy and a confirmation of the rapacious nature of humankind.

The sound of the bison bellow was nearly permanently silenced.

February 22, 2025

Can you imagine being struck by lightning? Sparky, a bison at Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in Iowa knows exactly what it's like! Sparky was struck in 2013 and is doing surprisingly well.

January 25, 2025

Just like cows and elk, bison have four stomachs. While you may think this means that bison can eat four times as much as animals with one stomach, this is not the case.

Their four-chambered, ruminant digestive system allows for the absorption of cellulose—a fibrous plant material that is hard to breakdown. With this ability to digest cellulose and their selective grazing habits, one of bison's greatest influences to the prairie ecosystem is based on their foraging ecology.

December 28, 2024

After four years of outreach to Congress and the White House, by the Wildlife Conservation Society, its partners the InterTribal Buffalo Council and National Bison Association and 60-plus Vote Bison Coalition members, the National Bison Legacy Act was signed on May 9, 2016, officially making the bison our national mammal. This historic event represents a true comeback story, embedded with history, culture, and conservation.

November 23, 2024

Every year when mid-winter arrives, snow can blanket the northern Great Plains, temperatures can drop well below zero and the winds can howl unmercifully and yet bison remain alive and well on the hostile landscape. Indeed, bison have evolved digestive, physiological, and behavioral strategies that allow them to survive some of the harshest weather in North America.

October 26, 2024

Healthy Prairie Relies on Bison Boop

One story, the legend of the White Buffalo Calf Woman, or Ptesan Wi, is a very sacred story for the American Indians. Many American Indians, such as the Sioux, Cherokee, Navaho, Lakota, and Dakota, celebrate the white buffalo calf and incorporate Ptesan Wi'steachings in their prayers.

September 28, 2024

One story, the legend of the White Buffalo Calf Woman, or Ptesan Wi, is a very sacred story for the American Indians. Many American Indians, such as the Sioux, Cherokee, Navaho, Lakota, and Dakota, celebrate the white buffalo calf and incorporate Ptesan Wi'steachings in their prayers.

August 31, 2024

Along the Utah-Colorado state border sits a mountain range resembling a shelf of books. This 1.2 million acre range, known as the Book Cliffs, is home to magnificent sandstone buttes, pinyon-juniper filled arroyos, and a herd of roughly 400 bison. This bison herd is only constrained by the steep and rugged canyons found in the Book Cliffs: it truly is a free-ranging and wild population.