Last of the Newfoundland Bison

NatureHistory
Written By Robert Hiscock
An Ai generated Newfoundland and Labrador tourisim ad featuring a bison

As the sun slips beneath the rocky hill, a young woman raises a fiddle to her chin. Beside her, a majestic bison pulls his gaze from an iceberg.

He seems entranced by her melody.

“The fiddler and the bison” could have been the next Newfoundland and Labrador tourism ad, if history had unfolded a little differently.

It’s not for lack of fiddlers, of course. You can find tons of amazing musicians in the province. What we’re lacking these days is wild bison. It wasn’t always that way; for a piece of the late 20th century Newfoundland had its own bison herd.

The last of them died nearly 30 years ago.

the Newfoundland Bison

The story began 61 years ago on October 3, 1963 when provincial Resources Minister, William J. Keough, made the announcement — Newfoundland needed a new big game animal. The government wanted to provide locals with another source of food.

It wouldn’t make much sense, they reasoned, to select an animal that would compete with existing game. Newfoundland needed a large animal that could occupy its own niche on the island. The caribou were making use of the lichen and the moose were growing the trees, they wanted to find something that would eat something different.

Their attention turned to the ‘under-utilized’ sedges and grasses of the southern Newfoundland muskeg. An animal that could survive on the low growing vegetation in the open, rocky expanses of the island might thrive, and have limited impact of the caribou and moose.

A animal that made use of the grasslands seemed like the way to go; an animal like the bison (aka buffalo). Under the watch of the province’s chief biologist Tom Bergerud, they set about making it happen.

Evening Telegram, October 4, 1963

A Risky Proposition

Despite any potential benefits, introducing a new species to the island was a risky proposition. Bringing new animals to an ecosystem often has unforeseen effects.

Newfoundlanders in the mid 20th century needed only to reflect on the moose. Two moose were introduced in Gander Bay in 1878, and four more in Howley in 1904. They expanded their territory at break-neck speed, less than half a century later they were distributed across the island.

120 years after being introduced, the island’s moose population is in excess of 120 000 animals, giving Newfoundland the highest density of moose anywhere in North America.

Alongside their rapid increase, changes were noted in the island’s forests.

Even attempted introductions left scars on the island.

In 1908 Sir Wilfred Grenfell brought 300 reindeer to Newfoundland from Norway. He argued they would be excellent draft animals, and a good source of food. For a number of reasons, the reindeer introduction didn’t work out and the reindeer died out. Despite the animals being long gone their effects are still felt.

Grenfell didn’t know it, but the reindeer weren’t travelling alone. They brought with them a deadly parasite, a type of brainworm (Elaphostronglus rangiferi) that had never been present on the island.

The parasite took hold in the local caribou herds, caused sickness and has never been eradicated.

Lessons Learned

Western Star, October 6, 1964

Rather than releasing a herd of bison on the island to roam free, it was decided to play it safe. The provincial government decided to introduce a small herd of bison on a coastal island. That way they could be monitored in a controlled fashion — hopefully any negative impacts would be limited to one small island and not spread throughout Newfoundland.

Recently resettled Brunette Island in Fortune Bay was selected.

 

At about 20km long, Brunette Island was big enough for a herd of bison and it had vegetation representative of Newfoundland.

On top of that, Brunette Island could offer an opportunity to study the interactions of bison and other Newfoundland mammals. Brunette Island had a small caribou herd (thanks to a previous introduction), and it had habitat suitable for moose — allowing them to be introduced into the study.

If all went well, after a three-year study the Bison could be relocated to Newfoundland where they could roam the southern grassy barrens without restraint.

The Bison meet Brunette Island

With the site selected, Newfoundland put out a call for bison, and the federal government answered. Canada donated the bison to the province — the only cost to province would be the shipping.

In June 1964, 24 healthy bison from Elk Island National Park, Alberta were loaded aboard a train. The herd consisted of 19 yearling heifers, 3 yearling bulls, and 2 adult bulls.

The herd took a six-day journey from Alberta to North Sydney, Nova Scotia.

At North Sydney, the bison had to leave the rail car behind and move to a boat. They were loaded into the cargo hold of the Cecilenne Marie, a freighter that would carry them to Brunette Island.

On June 11, 1964 they arrived.

The island was hidden by a thick blanket of fog. Making matters worse Brunette Island had no proper docking facilities for a freighter. The Cecilenne Marie had to be moored offshore and the bison carried to land by raft. To make the task more manageable, the bison were individually crated.

It was dangerous work.

The bison were fans of seafaring and didn’t react well to the rafts.

“Incongruous in their new oceanic environment the beasts, most of them yearling cows, were unsettled by the undulation of the unfamiliar ocean and became obstreperous.”
— Western Star, Corner Brook

One of the heifers drowned after she broke free of her restraint and fell into the ocean.

Moments later disaster struck again. One of the bulls was in the water — crate and all. When the raft struck the beach, the bull was spooked and managed to tip his crate off the raft into the ocean. The bull was trapped inside; its head was underwater. The handlers struggled to bring the animal’s nose to the surface and keep it there, while the crew broke the crate apart.

It was a close call but the water-logged bull was freed and made its way to shore.

A Shaky Start

23 animals came to shore and began their lives in Newfoundland but the journey from Alberta had been difficult and made some of the animals gravely ill.

In the following weeks three more bison died. The culprit had been stomach worms — the close quarters on the rail car and ship had caused the number of parasites in their system to rise to a dangerous level.

By July 2nd the herd was down to 20 members.

Plummeting Numbers

The remaining bison recovered from their trip and seemed to adjust to the grasses of Brunette Island.

They seemed healthy, but the deaths didn’t stop. 11 bison disappeared from the island during the first two winters —some without a trace.

By the spring of 1966 there were only 8 bison left.

Some wondered if poaching was to blame, but that could never be substantiated.

It’s possible Brunette Island — or its geography— was to blame. The missing bison might simply have fallen off the island. While trying to get all the grass they could, the bison might have ventured too close to the island’s steep cliffs. If they lost their footing they’d have fallen into the ocean below — never to be seen again.

Baby Bison

It wasn’t all doom and gloom though.

The bison were reproducing and, by 1969 a ‘wildlife official’ reported and increase in population, “There are now 13 buffalo on the island… three calves were born there this year. There hasn’t been any mortality among the herd in the past two years.”

By this time the Brunette Island bison were in their fifth year of, what was initially described as a 3-year study.

The herd hadn’t exactly prospered, to be sure. Even with the recent growth it was 11 animals shy of the number introduced, but the experiment had shown that bison could make it through the Newfoundland winter, survive on the island’s grasses, and produce healthy calves.

On top of that, the animals had interacted well with the caribou, but Caribou weren’t the only concern.

In 1974, Wildlife officials introduced moose to Brunette Island. They seemed to do well, at least initially but after a few years the moose disappeared.

At about the same time, the number of bison began to fall.

The Beginning of the End

In 1974 the herd numbered seven animals and things got worse in the following decade. By 1981 there were just 5, and by 1984 there were only three bison left. The writing was on the wall — no matter what happened, there were not enough animals left to build a successful population. The herd was, as one biologist put it, ‘biologically extinct.’

Whether there was any causal relationship between the decline in bison and moose was not well understood. The bison hadn’t been thriving anyway, and the moose introduction may have failed regardless of the presence of bison.

It remains a mystery.

Shifting Priorities

Prior to ‘biological extinction’ there was talk of relocating the bison to Newfoundland. The experiment had suggested they might survive — if they could kick their cliff-diving habit. In fact, bringing the bison to Newfoundland might have solved the problem; with more territory, the bison could find food in a less precarious places.

But it wasn’t to be.

While the bison were falling off Brunette Island, Newfoundland and Labrador’s bureaucratic landscape shifted. The province’s chief biologist Tom Bergerud, and driving force behind the bison experiment, made a leap of his own — he left his job.

With Bergerud’s departure the momentum behind the project changed and the hunger for a third big game animal disappeared. The department kept tabs on the bison but talk of transferring them to Newfoundland stopped.

The bison stayed offshore, living on Brunette Island until 1996 when the last, lonely bison died. He’d been born on the foggy shores of Brunette Island and never knew life anywhere else.

He died a true Newfoundland bison — the last of his kind.

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Robert Hiscock

Robert grew up in a tiny Newfoundland community called Happy Adventure. These days he lives in Gander, NL and his happiest adventures are spent with his two Labrador retrievers exploring the island while listening to a soundtrack of local music.

When the dogs are napping Robert takes photos, writes about Newfoundland, and makes a podcast.

https://productofnewfoundland.ca
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