THE BUFFALO’S RETURN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18758, 11 January 1923, Page 8

THE BUFFALO’S RETURN

INCREASE IN CANADA, NATIONAL PARK RESERVE, GREAT HERD ESTABLISHED, The buffalo is coming back, writes the Toronto correspondent of a London peper. So successful has been the effort _of the Canadian Government to preserve it from complete extinction that it has been necessary to plan for some day this fall or winter a mammoth buffalo “kill.” A thousand animals will be slaughtered. It is lO years since anything like that number of buffalo have been killed in a year. Many men still living remember when the buffalo roamed the North American continent literally in millions. When they stampeded tli© earth shook and the roar struck terror into the heart of any living creature that happened to be in the line of advance. Estimates say that once there were between

20 and 40 millions in existence. But the buffalo, though formidable, was an easy prey for the hunter. His size and his gregarious instincts made him a shining target fo slaughter in the mass. Sncn devices os stampeding herds by the thousand over steep declivities wore freely invoked and in tne years of carnage “sportsmanship ieac "®“ its deepest degradation. Buffalo meat was a staple article of'diet, no farmer was poor to own a buffalo robe or a buffa o coat. By, the time the Canadian Pacific Railway invaded the west only big piles of bleached bones remained to attest the slaugbter But these bones gave the infant railway its first freight. A huge tonnage was carried east to Montreal for use in a sugar refinxS’ extinction was almost complete but not quite. Lord Stvathcona gathered together a few animals for jus Manitoba estate. A small herd survived in the far north Peace River country. But these alone remained, except a few animals pn vately owned in the United States. LORD STRATHOONA’S HERD.

Twenty-five years ago the Canadian Government bought Lord Strathcona’s herd and took it to the National Park at Banff. For years it was regarded only as a sort cf curiosity. Then it dawned on the authorities that their little herd had potentialities. A game' preserve for tne North-west was decided upon. Accordingly, 162 square miles of sandy, rolling prairie, dotted with clumps of poplar and little lakes, and unsuitable for agriculture, was set aside, and girt with a woven wire fence 10ft high. Into this enclosure were turned antelope, moose, elk, deer, and with them some 709 buffalo. The buffalo consisted of the small herd from Banff and of those bought from Michael Pablo, a Montana rancher. Turned loose under the best natural conditions in this park situated at Wainwright, Alberta, about 100 miles due east of Edmonton, Alberta, the buffalo thrived from the start. Last spring the caretakers counted 6146 animals, and, though the 1922 calf crop cannot bo counted until the buffalo are herded into winter quarters, it is estimated that there will be an addition of from 1000 to 1300 woolly little hump-backed calves following their fierce shaggy mothers. FLOCKS IN OTHER DISTRICTS.

Besides the herd at Wainwright, Canada also has 300 head at Elk Island Park, Alberta, 12 head at Banff, and a few buffalo in the Zoos at London (Ontario), Vancouver, Toronto, and a few other points, to say nothing of the wild herd at Peace River, which, roaming over a vast area of prairie and bush, makes computation of its numbers hopeless. The mounted police at Fort Smith estimate the Peace River herd at anywhere from 600 to 2000 head. So it is possible that Canada has between 8000 and SOOO buffalo to-day. The Wainwright preserve has just about leached the limit of its capacity. That is one reason for thinning out the herd this winter. Another • reason is that the bulls have* become too numerous, and fights, many of them fatal, are becoming numerous. When the herd becomes properly balanced , perhaps the preserve will be enlarged to accommodate greater numbers, or other preserves will be established. A FUTURE NATIONAL INDUSTRY.

It is possible the buffalo may grow into a real national industry; He is a hardy animal who will forage for himself even in winter, pawing through the snow to the prairie grasses. Some hay is held in reserve for the younger animals in severe winter. Already the Wainwright preserve is self-supporting. This year's “kill” will yield a profit. The meat is delicious and the thousand carcases will be put on sale in all leading Canadian cities. The robes, which hold the record for warmth, will be sold by auction. The Wainwright preserve is also becoming an important destination for tourist traffic. Visitors often wander across the vast enclosure, and may do so in comparative safety if on foot and at a reasonable distance from a herd. Horsemen are less secure, and even the familiar range-ridera have to use spurs to escape the furious charge of an angry bison. Motorists are generally safe, but if they sound their horn they should be sure they have a cliar field and good going ahead. On the gates of tho preserve appears this notice: “Buffalo have been known to attack automobiles. Visitors venturing into tho park this way do so at their own risk.”