30 bison to be shipped from Canada's Elk Island to Yakutia in

GORNO-ALTAISK (Itar-Tass) - As many as 30 plains bison will
be shipped to Russia's republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in mid-March from
Canada's Elk Island National Park, the press service of the republic's
government told Itar-Tass.
Officials from Yakutia's ministry of the environment protection held
talks on the issue in Canada's Edmonton in February. The 30 new bison will
join the herd brought to Yakutia back in 2006.
"We had certain worries about bison's adaptation to Sakha's climatic
conditions, since our climate is much more severe than that in Canada,"
said Vladimir Grigoryev, Yakutia's minister of environment protection.
Nonetheless, he added, the previous herd of 30 bison has acclimatized well
in Yakutia. They gave birth to 21 calves.
The issue of relocating bison back to Russia's Siberia, where they
were endemic some 5,000 years ago, was first raised in 1994 at a meeting
of the then Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien with a delegation of
Russian governors. The Canadian prime minister promised to help and handed
over several animals as a gift. In 2006, thirty bison were shipped from
Canada's Alberta to the Yakutian National Park Lenskiye Stolby.
Elk Island National Park has a prominent history in large ungulate
conservation. As early as 1907, the Canadian government bought one of the
last and largest remaining pure-bred plains bison, the Pablo-Allard herd,
from Montana. In 2007, there were an estimated 425 plains bison in Elk
Island. In 1965, 23 wood bison were relocated to the south side of Elk
Island National Park. In 2007, the wood bison population in Elk Island
National Park was estimated at 315.