Wanuskewin CEO ‘tickled pink’ at new arrivals

Six newborn bison are bringing smiles to visitors’ faces at Wanuskewin Heritage Park.

CEO Darlene Brander said she and their staff are ecstatic about their new additions.

“Pretty thankful, pretty joyful … pretty tickled pink,” she said.

The new bison are small and more red in colour than their older counterparts.

(Libby Giesbrecht/650 CKOM)

Brander’s greatest thrill is seeing the visitors encounter the bison — especially the newborns — for the first time.

She said she’ll often ask visitors how their walk was after they return.

“To see and hear people’s expressions of joy when they describe, ‘Yeah, we saw the bison!'” she recounted.

“We know that the people have left with memories … connections, we know that through the bison they ask a lot more questions.”

Through these developments, Brander said the park can truly act on its mandate to elevate the understanding and appreciation of Plains Indigenous Cultures.

Brander also notes that these babies are “special.”

They’re a product of two herds that arrived in the park in 2018. One from Grasslands National park in Canada and the other from Yellowstone National Park in the United States.

The bison population in the late 1800s numbered around 30 million, but decreased to about 1,000 over time, Brander explained. She said the two herds their bison came from both have origins from those 1,000 remaining bison.

“The bison that we have, the babies that are born are the closest that we will have to the 1800s bison that roamed this great land so many years ago.”

Wanuskewin is hoping to grow its herd to 50 over the coming years.

There are no cute baby names to share — none of the 24 bison in the herd, including the latest additions, have names.

“In our Indigenous culture we consider them brothers and sisters but we do not name them,” Brander explained.

Wanusekwin offers daily programming and tours at 3:30 p.m. for visitors hoping to catch a glimpse of the newest additions to the herd.