Elk Island bison from Alberta, Canada return to the American Prairie Reserve in Montana after 100 years

"Now we are bringing them back to help restore a complete grassland ecosystem."

A bison herd from Elk Island National Park in Alberta returned to its ancestral home in Montana this week.

Seventy-one bison were released Wednesday on a prairie preserve in northeastern Montana.

The release marked a historic homecoming for the bison as their ancestors, part of the Pablo-Allard herd, were sold to the Canadian government in 1906.

The herd was among the last free-roaming herds of bison on the continent at the turn of the 20th century.

While tens of millions of bison once roamed the Great Plains, only an estimated 500,000 bison remain in North America, said the American Prairie Reserve, the group behind the release.

Of these, less than four percent live in conservation herds.

"We knew from the beginning that returning bison to the land would be an important step in restoring the reserve’s full biodiversity," said American Prarie Reserve http://www.americanprairie.org/ president Sean Gerrity.

Full Story: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2012/03/09/edmonton-elk-island-bison-montana.html?cmp=rss