More bison are roaming the Wolakota Buffalo Range after the animals were relocated to South Dakota's Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation from nearby national parks.
Leaders from the Sicangu Lakota (Rosebud Sioux) Nation and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) joined the Department of the Interior to announce the transfer at the end of October.
"The Rosebud Economic Development Corporation celebrated growth of their Wolakota Buffalo Range in South Dakota and will soon be the largest Native-managed bison herd in North America," the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stated in a tweet Oct. 28. "Over 500 of 900 bison will come from herds managed by @NatlParkService and @USFWS."
According to KWSO, more than 100 bison will be donated from the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.
"So our excess animals this year will be going to Wolakota Buffalo Range in South Dakota, and to other tribes," Quinton Smith, a park ranger at Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, told KWSO. "We think maybe 150 and 200 animals will be excess this year. That'll play out more in the weeks to come when we start working animals."
According to a release from the National Park Service, the 100 bison that were a part of the initial transfer came to the Wolakota Buffalo Range from Badlands National Park in South Dakota and Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota under last year's Bison Conservation Initiative, which was delayed due to the pandemic.
"The arrival of the buffalo marks a new beginning for the Sicangu Oyate, where cultural, ecological, and economic priorities are equally celebrated and are of great benefit to our community," Wizipan Little Elk, CEO of the Rosebud Economic Development Corporation, said in the release.
According to the NPS, the Wolakota Buffalo Range has the potential to house 1,500 bison.
Little Elk told Feast and Field Magazine in October the range "should be the biggest Native-managed buffalo herd in the U.S."
The Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation is home to almost 28,000 acres of grasslands, according to NPS.
