A lone bison in the snow at Elk Island National Park/Travel Alberta

Forty wood bison from Elk Island National Park in Alberta have relocated to Alaska.

“The survival of bison from near-extinction is one of Canada's conservation success stories, where populations of plains and wood bison have been established across North America,” Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, said in a news release. “This transfer of Canadian bison to help populate Alaska is a historic step in ensuring bison continue to thrive for generations to come.”

Supporting the relocation of bison has been part of Elk Island's mission for more than a century. Both the wood and plains bison herds from the park have supplied bison to national and international conservation projects. Elk Island has translocated nearly 3,000 plains and wood bison to various partners in bison conservation, including several Indigenous groups.

Canada has given 40 wood bison to the state of Alaska/Parks Canada

The Alaska wood bison restoration project successfully established a wild wood bison population in western Alaska in 2015. The wild population is currently estimated at more than 100 wood bison.

"The State of Alaska will be forever grateful that the government of Canada took the steps to save the last remaining wood bison and later established a disease-free population at Elk Island National Park to propagate wood bison for release elsewhere,” said Tom Seaton, wood bison project biologist with the Division of Wildlife Conservation at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. There are more than 100 wood bison in the wild in Alaska and around 70 in captivity.

“More releases into the wild are expected soon," said Seaton.

Founded in 1906, Elk Island protects one of the last big elk herds in the region and was the first wildlife refuge in Canada. It’s the only fully enclosed national park and is just 35 minutes east of Edmonton.

In 1965, Elk Island was established as a source of wood bison that are healthy and free of introduced cattle genes for reintroduction projects nationally and internationally. Because of their long history of disease-free status, these bison are sought after for national and international conservation projects.

In 2008, Elk Island sent 53 wood bison to Alaska, which later founded the lower Yukon-Innoko herd near the village of Shageluk.

Over the past decade, the park has worked closely with Indigenous nations that have received bison in an effort to bring the culturally significant animal back to its traditional rangeland, while also facilitating cultural and socio-economic opportunities. Since 2016, more than 300 bison have been translocated to Indigenous nations in Canada and the United States.