SAVING THE BUFFALO

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 25, 30 January 1929, Page 18

SAVING THE BUFFALO

CANADIAN ACTIVITY

WINTER-TIME FEEDIN G

(From "The Post's" Representative.) VANCOUVER, 12th December.

Of all the administrative acts of tho Dominion of Canada in preserving natural resources none has moro mtorest for the visitor than the steps that are being taken to liand-feed tho buffalo and reindeer in their native wilds. Iho task in regard to tho buffalo w not so difficult. All that remains of the herds, that once roamed the Prairie at will comprise two breeding herds in national preserves in Alberta, one at Wamwright, dose by the trans-continental railway of the "National" system, and accessible to the tourist, the other iaiHicr north in the Wood Buflalo Ke-

The buffalo will paw away deep snow,:ts ho has always done, and get his natural food, :,biit range grass is getfuug limited, and the-park authorities aend out sJeigh loads of feed during the worst of the winter months. Slough hay, cut in the.low. wet places duriug the summer, straw,, sunflower, and other cattlo ; .fodder make up -his ration, ltango dwellers' say that the Prairie buffalo never looked so handsome as this new breed of sleek animals; with sinning flanks and rich, dark brown, or black manes tljat hang almost to the ground, shaggy forelegs, and glistening horn's. "We wore monarchs of this la,nd long before Cortoz, the first European to »azo upon one of our number," the bison seem to say. "How the mighty have- fallen. . With gun and horse you have driven us almost from the face of the earth." • ; ''',-, Ons looks in vain for Sioux ov Blackfoot encampment nearby. These, he reflects, are "civilised" buffalo. But Canada is determined to get'the bison back into their primitive state. Hence tho hand-feeding, till they; grow numbers sufficiently; to bo trekked in larger' drafts to wide open spaces in the"north, where they may 1:0 am at will once more.