Welcome back friends!
This week I have some great photos from a winter road trip to Fort Providence where I had a chance to shoot some snow and frost-covered bison near the Mackenzie Bison Sanctuary. I learned a little more about the sanctuary during my trip and thought I’d share it with you in this post.
The Mackenzie Bison Sanctuary covers over 10,000 square kilometres of boreal forest and is flanked by NWT Highway #3 on the west and Great Slave Lake on the east. The highway follows the edge of the park for over 80 kms and is an easy way to access the animals for photography.
The protected reserve was established in 1963 when a small herd of bison were discovered in the wilderness of the Northwest Territory. At the time of this discovery, disease and hunting had almost wiped the bison population out. Approximately 18 bison were captured and relocated to the newly created reserve. This was the first successful bison relocation program in North America. Now, almost 55 years later there are between 2000 to 3000 bison in the sanctuary.
The NWT declared bison a protected species in 1964 and that status has remained. The Committee on the Status of Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) lists the current status of the wood bison as a species of special concern.
Today, the Mackenzie Herd and the Wood Buffalo Herd (the bison herd Wood Buffalo National Park) are the only two bison herds left to roam in the Northwest Territories.
I have lots more to share about these majestic animals so expect another post about these behemoths in the coming weeks!