Blueberry Hill RV Park

Athabasca, Alberta

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Happy Birthday to Kristen and here's one last bison picture for your boys.

These are "wood bison," a cousin to the Great Plains variety. They are supposedly taller, thinner, and lighter, but frankly we couldn't tell the difference. There are four distinct herds with their own ranges in northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories, two infected with brucellosis and two that are clean. Brucellosis can jump to domestic cattle, so ranchers are constantly after the authorities to keep the bison away from cattle ranges. The area between the clean and infected herds is in the Northwest Territories and is an unrestricted hunting area.  As a way to prevent clean and infected herds mixing, if you see a bison in this area, you can kill it--anytime year around.  And apparently the locals do!