March 29, 2006 — Russia is acquiring a herd of Canadian bison for reintroduction into a nature park in the rugged and mostly forested Siberian state of Sakha (Yakutia) some 5,000 years after they died out in the area.

The starter herd of 30 wood bison will board a Russian cargo plane next month and fly to the Russian republic where biologists are keen to round out local ecosystem diversity in the protected Lenskiye-Stolby Nature Park, said Canadian wildlife biologist Hal Reynolds.

The far northeastern Russian region is home to many moose, caribou and elk, but the last bison to roam the area died out about 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, he said.

The bison is North America's largest land mammal, growing to 900 kilograms (2,000 pounds) and 1.8 meters (six feet) high at the shoulder.

The wood bison headed for Russia were all born last year and rounded up from Elk Island National Park outside Edmonton.

Currently in quarantine, the bison have been checked for diseases, vaccinated and treated for parasites. To get them into fine form, they have been feasting on hay, alfalfa cubes and molasses loaded with vitamins and drinking a sort of bison "Gatorade," Reynolds said.

They will travel in trailers lined with non-slip rubber matting to their new 194,000-acre home at the Lenskiye-Stolby Nature Park on the southern edge of the republic where no hunting is allowed.

Eventually, the herd will be split in two and some relocated again to the Orto-Saala region further north.

Other bison from Elk Island have in the past been relocated within North America to repopulate herds, Reynolds said.

"However, this trip to Russia will definitely be the furthest any bison has ever roamed," he said.