The wood bison were released south of the Innoko National Wildlife Refuge near Shageluk, and quickly adapted to their new home. Here we are at the Wood Bison enclosure at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, home of the Wood Bison restoration project. A scholarship foundation to celebrate restoring wood bison to Alaska. They predominantly use open meadows interspersed among woodlands and feed on grasses and sedges. wood bison, mostly from Elk Island National Park, Alberta were brought to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage.
Some 150,000 wood bison or more once roamed the boreal forests of Alaska and northwestern Canada, grazing in meadows between vast expanses of trees (thus the “wood” in their name). Our Mission. The Aishihik Wood Bison herd have become much more wary of humans since the hunting began in 1998.

Our mission is to honor the return of wood bison to the Alaskan landscape and to acknowledge the dedication and perseverance of Randy Rogers and the countless other men and women who made the restoration project a success. Distribution. The captive herd grew as Alaskans wrangled over if and where to release them to the wild. None designated.

SHAGELUK – Wood bison calves are easy to spot from the sky. The Wood Bison have their habitat in the northern half of North America, residing between Alaska and Canada. Many Yukoners and visitors have had a close encounter with Wood Bison on the Alaska Highway south of Watson Lake, where a herd can be found along the road. The wood bison (Bison bison athabascae) or mountain bison (often called the wood buffalo or mountain buffalo), is a distinct northern subspecies or ecotype of the American bison. Wood bison were the last bison to occur naturally in Alaska but disappeared during the last few hundred years, presumably because of unregulated hunting and changes in habitat distribution. The Alaska Department of Fish & Game officially announced an update on the wood bison population in the Innoko River area of Alaska. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game made the commitment over 20 years ago to return wood bison to their native range in Central-Alaska in partnership with the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, who currently cares for the only captive herd in the United States.
The management plan suggests that hunting may occur when there is a harvestable surplus of about 20 animals, with the overall population at about 250 animals at that time. Video by Westphal Productions 2018 Three years ago, SCI Foundation (SCIF) helped the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Wildlife Conservation release 130 wood bison back into the lower Innoko/Yukon River area of Alaska. Wood bison appear very similar to plains bison but are slightly bigger, with mature males weighing up to 2,000 pounds. Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists are monitoring the newly reintroduced wood bison.

We provide scholarships to people with extraordinary talent who can demonstrate … Wood bison, the largest animal in the Americas, once roamed throughout present-day Alaska and western Canada. Historically found throughout Alaska and Canada.

By 1900, there were fewer than 300 individuals remaining in Canada, and by 1950, it was thought that wood bison no longer existed as a subspecies. Wood bison, the largest animal in the Americas, once roamed throughout present-day Alaska and western Canada. In spring 2015, 130 wood bison were reintroduced to their historical range in Western Alaska from which they were extirpated over a century ago. Now there are two forms of Bison in North America that were both derived from the great North American Bison. Finally in 2015, 130 wood bison were released in the