Baby bison new attraction at Cape Breton wildlife park
Four baby bison have been living at the Two Rivers Wildlife Park in Huntington, N.S. — along the Mira River — for about a week.
Wildlife park staff say the animals are roughly nine months old.
"So we got them from a ranch down in Inverness,” explained animal attendant Michaela Hadway. "(They are) very timid so far. They are young, and they're in a new place and they went on a long journey, so they're still kind of recovering from that. But I have a lot of faith that soon they'll discover that people have lots of good treats to give them, and they'll warm up."
To be exact, the big, bushy bovines are plains bison. As the name suggests, one of the few places in North America to find them in the wild is at Yellowstone National Park in the United States.
At Two Rivers, staff hope the bison will be a good attraction heading into the busier warmer months.
"It's always good to have something to fill the Wildlife Park a bit more, right?” Hadway said. “Add something that will put us on the map, draw in visitors."
Another staff member, Robert Lanceleve, was among those who brought the bison back from the ranch where they were bred.
Like nearly everyone, this is his first time seeing bison in person — and he can only imagine how big they'll be when fully-grown.
"Probably 1,200-1,400 pounds, so they're going to be quite large”, Lanceleve said.
The four bison haven't been named yet, but some staff members — clearly, fans of country music — have taken to calling them Dolly, Reba, Loretta and Shania.
Whether or not those names stick, they animals are already winning friends with their good nature.
"They're very timid, gentle giants and I look forward to caring for them,” Hadway said.
Hadway noted bison in captivity typically live for 20-to-25 years, so the hope is the animals will remain at Two Rivers Wildlife Park for a long time.
For more Nova Scotia news visit our dedicated provincial page.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Trump confronts repeated boos during raucous Libertarian convention speech
Donald Trump was booed repeatedly while addressing Saturday night’s Libertarian Party National Convention.
Grayson Murray, two-time PGA Tour winner, dead at 30
Two-time PGA Tour winner Grayson Murray died Saturday morning at age 30, one day after he withdrew from the Charles Schwab Cup Challenge at Colonial.
Family of toddler found dead at small-town Ont. daycare no closer to answers after year of investigation
A year has passed since two-year-old Vienna Irwin was found on the property of a home-based daycare in small-town Ontario, but her family says they are no closer to answers of what happened that day.
More seniors are using homeless shelters. Here's why, according to experts
One of the country’s homeless shelters has seen an uptick in the number of people through its doors, including more older adults over 50.
The death toll in Kharkiv attack rises to 14 as Zelenskyy warns of Russian troop movements
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Sunday that Russia is preparing to intensify its offensive along Ukraine's northern border, as the death toll rose to 14 in an aerial bomb attack on a large construction supplies store in the city of Kharkiv.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels freed over 100 war prisoners, the Red Cross says
The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen on Sunday released more than 100 war prisoners linked to the country’s long-running conflict, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
Man or machine? Toronto company finds a way to determine how real audio clips are
The Toronto-based research arm of life sciences technology firm Klick Health has found a way to analyze voices in a manner that’s so granular, it can tell whether it's a person or an artificial intelligence-powered machine.
No sign Canada has a plan to reach NATO defence spending target: U.S. NATO ambassador
The U.S. ambassador to NATO says she has seen no indication that Canada has a plan to reach the NATO spending target of two per cent of GDP on defence.
This type of screen time has the worst effect on kids: experts
According to some experts, there is one type of screen time that is continuously excessive, and it's having a severe effect on our children.