Canada/Manitoba: Riding Mountain NP- Plains Bisons

We really came to the Riding Mountain NP to see the bison. The park is home to a small, but significant, bison population that lives in a fenced enclosure known as the Lake Audy Bison Enclosure. This herd, established in 1931, is one of the few remaining examples of plains bison in Canada. The enclosure covers about 500 hectares and there are about 50 bison roaming around in their natural habitat. The bison in the park are part of conservation efforts to preserve the species, which was once nearly driven to extinction due to overhunting in the 19th century. The bison species found in Riding Mountain National Park is the plains bison (Bison bison bison). Plains bison are one of two subspecies of the American bison, the other being the wood bison (Bison bison athabascae). At first we drove all around and didn’t see any bison, and then they started coming from the wooded areas and one by one the entire herd crossed the road including small baby bison and giant bulls.