Banff Bison bull euthanized

[Catherine]

This makes me angry. They have released a herd of bison in the Banff area wilderness. One bull wandered farther away from the area then they wanted so they euthanized him.

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-new...ional-park

The thing is, he didn't ask to be moved. Who knows, having one bull wander like that or even two bulls, might be totally predictable behavior. They should have planned to deal with it without killing the bull. Maybe they had too many bulls for the size of the herd.
Whatever the reason, they didn't wait very long before killing the bull. There are so few bison and he was a healthy young male. 
His death is not a good thing and it casts a shadow over the joy of bison returning to the Banff wilderness area.

[Catslave]

That so sad my brother and his wife saw the bison when they in Canada.

[Catherine]

Bison are beautiful. They probably had too many males in the herd and the younger ones wandered off to look for a place to live in peace and maybe find their own females. They should have planned for this when they moved the bison to Banff in the first place. They really didn't need to kill the Bison.

[Tobi]

This doesn't sound right, I agree. It sounds like bad planning on the part of people...or bad maintenance or lack of foresight, etc.
Kiling him because he went into a different area than was intended is a harsh method of maintaining the herd. Do they think that will stop others wandering out of some human's idea of a "perimeter"? Of course it won't. And then what will they do? Kill more?
It doesn't sound like the re-location has been thought out properly.

[Catherine]

It is not easy to relocate animals. This is really more a matter of reintroducing them. Certainly the conditions are right for bison to thrive. They seem to be doing well in Banff. What they didn't anticipate was the movement of young animals. They needed to think over the dynamics of herd life better. There were cows in the area the bison migrated to and bison can breed with cows. Maybe the bison was looking for his own herd.  He could have joined the cows and they could have caught him. Bison are a big animal, but they are not that dangerous. Most farmers would know not to approach a bison. It was too sudden a decision to just kill him. We have a bad tendency to sort out animal issues by killing things. There are always other alternatives.

[Catherine]

The second wandering Bison has been caught and relocated to Waterton Lakes on the southern end of Alberta. It is in a paddock for now and it will be safe there.  

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/w...-1.4792139

It is going to take time to get the relocated Bison to settle in and establish themselves. They have been gone from the area for over 100 years.
There is also the problem of their status. Since they are introduced they are not protected wildlife even though they used to be native to the area. That is going to take some sorting out. I think people need to learn some patience and give the animals time to settle and be at home. It will work out in the end, but it should have been expected that there would be a few problems.

At least they thought it over and found a way to not kill the second wandering bull. It seems humans can learn too.