CANADA’S BIG FIVE
male rubs its head roughly against a rock.
It’s a microcosm of bison life as it existed
on the plains generations ago, when the
population sat so comfortably in its tens
of millions that people would shoot them
from passing trains, just for fun.
That the bison are in a drive-through
enclosure may lend the experience a
safari-park feel, but the lack of a chase
doesn’t make this an insignificant
sighting. These are the descendants of a
small herd reintroduced here in 1940, part
of a conservation effort that began at the
turn of the century, following decades of
intense hunting that had sent numbers
nosediving to a few hundred. And it’s
been something of a success – today, the
country’s wild population has recovered
to more than 2,000. The Lake Audy herd
roams freely within 500ha of grassland
divided into winter and summer pasture,
a rotation that ensures ample forage allT
here’s a painting by Frederic
Remington – an artist
known for his impressions
of the Old West – of a herd
of bison being led by a
bull. “That never woulda
happened,” says retired
biologist and wildlife guide Pat Rousseau.
“The females make all the decisions – where
you eat, where you lay down, who babysits.”
Pat is leading chapter one of my summer
mission through the province of Manitoba
to see the ‘big five’ – a term famously coined
by big-game hunters in Africa, now used to
market wildlife experiences across the globe- and we’ve just got our first tick. Metres
from the minibus are 20 members of the
40-strong plains bison herd that resides at
Riding Mountain National Park – all shaggy
coats, humped shoulders and low-slung
heads. Youngsters jostle in preparation for
the autumn rut; a mother tends to her calf; a