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Fourteen female bisons, part of the historic Pablo-Allard herd, are on their way to Oakland Zoo, where they eventually will be joined by two males from Yellowstone National Park.
The end goal? Restore a herd of a few thousand living in an open-range setting on Blackfeet tribal land, Glacier National Park and Waterton National Park, which straddle the border between Montana and Alberta, Canada.
The bison will live in the zoo’s new California Trail on 12 acres of rolling grassland and oak trees. The area also has a 25-foot long pond and a dust wallow to allow the bison to live as they do in the wild, as well as a state-of-the-art corral and chute system for management and medical care.
The Pablo-Allard herd began when four to seven orphaned calves were captured by Samuel Walking Coyote of the Pend d’Oreilles tribe and three Blackfeet companions. The calves were orphaned during a hunt on Blackfeet land. With their mothers killed, the calves shadowed the hunters’ horses for security, making them easy to capture.
The herd grew to 13 in 1884, and 10 of the bison were sold to Michel Pablo and Charles Allard, forming the Pablo-Allard herd on Montana’s Flathead Reservation. This herd eventually became the largest in the United States, numbering 300 head, and played a key role in the preservation of bison by restocking and supplementing many public conservation herds, including those at Yellowstone National Park and the National Bison Range herd in Montana.
In 1906, when the U.S. government opened the Flathead Reservation to homesteaders, Pablo sought a land grant for his herd, but was denied. He eventually sold the bisons to the government of Canada and the animals were shipped to Elk Island National Park by train. The last of the herd arrived north of the border in 1912.
Cultural leaders, elders and members of the Blackfeet Nation from the Browning, Montana reservation gathered Tuesday for a ceremonial send-off of the bisons. Future offspring of the animals will be returned to form the tribe’s herd, restoring bison to an area where they once roamed.
The bison are expected to arrive in Oakland on Friday. A welcoming ceremony with Blackfeet Nation representatives is scheduled for the public at 1 p.m. Saturday in the zoo’s Wildlife Theater. The California Trail is expected to open in June.
