Bruno (Image Credit: CFJC News)

By Sydney Chisholm

BC WILDLIFE PARK

Young bison ‘a very welcome revival’ at Wildlife Park

Aug 20, 2024 | 7:00 PM

KAMLOOPS – Bison have a long history at the BC Wildlife Park and despite the passing of lifelong resident P.T. earlier this year, the park’s bison legacy lives on. The bison enclosure has new life with a pair of young calves who found a home at the park last year.

“They have been a very welcome revival of this enclosure,” said Tracy Reynolds, animal care manager at the BC Wildlife Park. “We had two older bison for the last few years who were great, but they were definitely in their senior years, so it is very nice to have some some young animals again in here.”

Last year the park received two young bison from a local ranch after their eldest bison, named Mama, passed away.

“Now that they’re a good year-and-a-half and a year old (respectively), we’ve moved them in [to the main bison enclosure] and they’re doing superb, actually,” said Reynolds. “You can tell they really enjoy it. They’re moving and using the whole exhibit.”

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The two calves, named Bruno and Belle, were going to be companions for P.T., a lifelong resident at the park, who passed away earlier this year.

Though P.T. never got to meet the new additions, Reynolds is glad the park’s bison exhibit will live on.

“Bison are definitely a species that is endangered in Canada. There are very few left in the wild,” she said. “It is a species that used to be prevalent in the Canada range — you know, in huge herds — and now is down to basically nothing. And the animals we have are basically now from farmed individuals because there just aren’t any wild bison to get anymore.”

Eventually, the park would like to grow its bison herd.

“We have a male and a female and ultimately we would like them to have a couple of calves and then that will grow our herd a little bit that way,” Reynolds told CFJC News.

Visitors to the park can view Belle and Bruno in their new permanent home at the bison enclosure.

“We want to preserve the species and have them. It would be nice to see them again on the landscape and increase their numbers in the wild,” said Reynolds. “By having them here, we hope to educate the public and have them learn about bison in general.”