Bison spotted near Bluefish Dam
Biologist says he thinks sighting is an anomaly and not an intentional migration
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Monday, March 28, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A bison expert with the territorial government's Department of Environment and Natural Resources says he has never seen bison as far north as the Bluefish Dam, until now.
A photo showing four bison grazing near the power plant at the far end of Prosperous Lake was posted to the Northwest Territories Power Corporation's Facebook page March 18. The plant operator who took the photos said he had never seen bison in that area previously.
"I think they are there because sometimes bison go on excursions and explore areas outside their normal range," said biologist Terry Armstrong from his office in Fort Smith last week. "They just happened to land there. But I don't know what they are doing."
Armstrong said bison are not considered nomadic and they, for the most part, stay close to their home range.
"They do make exploratory excursions away from their range sometimes and this kind of thing happens. Normally I would expect that if they get into an area where it's not terribly suitable then they simply retreat. If they find food that can sustain them they may spend some time there. I wouldn't expect them to spend a long time in that area."
Armstrong said bison have been known to graze on sedges and grasses that have sprouted up in areas where forest fires have burned but that doesn't seem to be the case here.
"I was looking at fire history maps. In 2014, there was quite a large fire between their range to the west and the Bluefish area but there are a fair number of number of (square) kilometres that haven't burned at least since 1965," Armstrong said.
"Sedges grow in wet meadows and shallow areas near bays and streams and they've probably found one of those spots where the sedges are sticking up above the ice, probably under the snow and they're probably feeding on those.
"They are more northeast than we are used to seeing them. We're more accustomed to seeing them south of the highway between Yellowknife and Behchoko and usually not more than halfway between Yellowknife and Behchoko. There have been sightings right outside Yellowknife," Armstrong said. "This is as far north as I have ever seen them."
Armstrong pointed out that muskox have also been extending their range, mostly to the south.
"There was a (muskox) sighting at the Talston ... dam just outside Fort Smith and another one just across the Alberta border, east of Fort Smith," Armstrong said. "There may be some similarities but I think it is a different phenomenon. It appears that we're seeing more sightings of muskox coming into the Boreal forest than say 60 or 70 years ago. I don't see as large (a) range expansion for bison," he said.
Meanwhile, Ioana Spiridonica, spokesperson for the Department of Transportation (DOT), confirmed a bison warning sign on Highway 3 on the outskirts of Yellowknife has been malfunctioning.
"In recent months, it has not been working properly. A new modem was installed in February. The sign worked for a few weeks. However, sometime last week, the sign was displaying only one page reading 'BISON CLOSE TO HWY.' (Wednesday) morning, there was no display whatsoever," Spiridonica stated in an e-mail to Yellowknifer. "DOT is currently looking into this."
The $30,000 sign was erected in 2009 at a cost of $30,000.
There was one bison-vehicle collision on Highway 3 between Yellowknife and Behchoko reported to the department this winter, Spiridonica stated in an e-mail.
