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parks canada

For the first time in more than 100 years, Banff National Park in Canada is going to be home to wild bison.

A wild bison at Elk Island National Park. Photo from Johane Janelle/Parks Canada.

The Great Plains and eastern slopes of the Rockies were once home to as many as 60 million bison, but by the late 1800s, settlers and disease had almost wiped them out. In 1889, a prominent conservationist estimated only about 1,000 animals remained.

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