Wood bison moved to Alaska
A herd of wood bison was relocated from Elk Island National Park near Edmonton to the Minto Flats refuge in Alaska, a transport described as roughly a 40‑hour drive for conservation purposes. (x.com) Social posts documenting the move highlighted the long transit and the interjurisdictional nature of the relocation effort. (x.com)
Canada sent 44 wood bison from Elk Island National Park in Alberta to Alaska on April 13, adding animals to a restoration effort at Minto Flats. (canada.ca) Parks Canada said the animals were headed to the State of Alaska in the fourth transfer from Elk Island, after earlier shipments in 2008, 2022 and 2024. News reports on the move said the trip to Minto Flats State Game Refuge would take about 40 hours by truck. (canada.ca) (globalnews.ca) Wood bison are the larger northern cousin of plains bison, and Alaska wildlife officials say they lived in the state for thousands of years before disappearing there in the early 1900s. The last reported sightings in Alaska were in that period, after hunting and habitat changes pushed the animals out. (adfg.alaska.gov 1) (adfg.alaska.gov 2) Alaska is trying to rebuild a wild population with animals from Canada because Canada kept the source herd alive. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game says wood bison persisted in Canada and now supply the animals living in Alaska today. (adfg.alaska.gov 1) (adfg.alaska.gov 2) Minto Flats is a 500,000-acre state game refuge about 35 miles west of Fairbanks, and Alaska chose it as the site for a new Interior herd. State biologists said 58 wood bison were transported there in 2024 and held in a “soft release” setup to keep them anchored to the area. (adfg.alaska.gov 1) (adfg.alaska.gov 2) That project moved into a new phase in May 2025, when Alaska released 61 wood bison at Minto Flats, including one newborn calf. KUAC reported the Minto Flats herd became the second wild wood bison population in Alaska and the second in the United States. (deltadiscovery.com) (kuac.org) Alaska already has another restored herd in the Lower Yukon and Innoko River region, where the first wild releases began in 2015. State officials said that herd gave biologists lessons they used for the Minto Flats reintroduction. (adfg.alaska.gov) (alaskapublic.org) The effort is not only about adding animals; it is about building herds large enough to last. Alaska biologists said a population needs room for 500 or more bison over time to preserve genetic diversity. (adfg.alaska.gov) Elk Island has become the supply point for that work. Parks Canada said the Alberta park has provided bison for Indigenous nations, other Canadian national parks and conservation projects across North America for more than a century. (canada.ca) This week’s convoy was another cross-border handoff in that longer campaign: animals raised in a managed Canadian herd, loaded in Alberta on April 13, and sent north to help keep wood bison on Alaska’s landscape. (canada.ca) (globalnews.ca)
