Wood Buffalo. Nature miracle

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Wood Buffalo. Nature miracle

Wonders of nature

Wood Buffalo National Park is the largest not only in Canada, but in all of America. It stretches in the northwest of the country, for 283 km from south to north and 161 km from west to east. The total area of the national park is about 4,5 million hectares.

Wood Buffalo National Park

Wood Buffalo is located between Athabasca and Great Slave Lakes, in the provinces of Alberta and Mackenzie. The territory of the park - coniferous and mixed forests, meadows, open plains, swampy plains and tundra woodlands, numerous rivers and lakes. One of the largest inland deltas in the world, formed by the Athabasca and Peace Rivers, which flow into Lake Athabasca, turned out to be in the park zone.

There are no roads here, so Wood Buffalo serves as a safe haven for the only surviving herd of bison, for the preservation of which, in fact, the park was created. Only one road passes through the entire territory of the national park for independent tourist excursions, and travel conditions are strictly stipulated.

The park was founded in 1922, much later than many of the famous parks in Canada. Canada's first national park, Banff, was established in 1885. A little later, they received the status of national parks Yoho, Jasper, Glacier. Located in the most picturesque corners of the Rocky Mountains (with a dense coniferous forest, with vast ice fields on the peaks, with waterfalls, clear mountain lakes and hot springs), they have become a wonderful place to relax. Tourists and skiers are constantly visiting here (about 2 million people a year visit only one Banff park).

Parks on the plains of central Canada were created later - in the 1920s. Then, during the development of the steppe and forest-steppe regions, many wild animals lost their natural habitats, and their numbers decreased significantly, some species were almost completely exterminated. Therefore, in order to protect animals in natural conditions, in particular steppe bison, the Wood Buffalo National Park was created.

When the park was created, only one herd of forest shaggy bison, numbering 1,5 thousand heads, remained.

The American bison is very similar to the European bison. It reaches a height of about 2 m, and a length of up to 3 m and weighs up to 900 kg. Once upon a time, bison were found throughout the Great Plains of the USA and Canada, were found even in the north-east of Siberia (but in Siberia they died out several thousand years ago). Now the range of distribution of the steppe and forest varieties of bison is actually limited to the territory of Wood Buffalo Park.

During the European colonization of America, bison roamed the Great Plains of the United States and Canada in large herds. Then there were at least 60 million of them. Indian tribes used them for food. Later, during the wars of the colonists with the Indians, bison were exterminated in such incredible numbers that by the end of the XNUMXth century there were negligible numbers of them left. And those remained only thanks to the efforts of the New York Zoological Society.

In the second half of the 1920s, more than 6 steppe bison were introduced to Wood Buffalo National Park. But this did not solve the problem: tuberculosis was introduced with new individuals, and the free crossing of bison of two populations threatened the existence of the forest subspecies. Therefore, it was decided to keep a purebred herd of wood bison in a secluded isolated part of the national park. So, 18 animals were settled in a special reserve on the banks of the Mackenzie River. In addition, the habitat areas of forest and steppe bison were reliably divided.

Since 1925, the bison as a rare species has been protected by law. Therefore, its number is steadily growing. So, by 1950, 13 thousand steppe, forest and hybrid bison lived in Canada. This is the largest herd in the Americas. In 1959, the first 100 licenses for shooting bison in the vicinity of the park were already issued.

Wood Buffalo Park is an ideal place for bison: flood and sedge meadows, various shrubs and poplar undergrowth reliably serve as a source of food for the animal in summer and winter.

Moose, caribou, black-tailed and white-tailed deer, wapiti, caribou, musky rats are not uncommon in Wood Buffalo. Other wild animals also live: bears, lynxes, wolves. Quite a lot of moose and beavers, porcupines and skunks. There are more than 200 species of birds. The most rare species of white American cranes (several dozen pairs of these birds live in the park). The places of their nesting, wintering and migration routes are carefully guarded.

Unlike Wood Buffalo Park, the parks of the southern Canadian Plains are widely used for recreation and tourism. Although they are certainly used as refuges for wildlife. Elk Island Park (Deer Island) in the vicinity of Edmonton, despite its small area, also gives shelter to bison, as well as elk, elk deer.

Author: Yudina N.A.

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