5 bison dead after 2 vehicles hit them in Elk Island National Park: Parks Canada

Five bison are dead after two vehicles hit them in a national park east of Edmonton early Thursday morning, Parks Canada says.

RCMP are investigating the incident, which killed three bison and injured two others so severely they had to be euthanized. It is the most calamitous collision the park has recorded, according to Dale Kirkland, superintendent of Elk Island National Park.

"It's a really heartbreaking moment for us," Kirkland told CBC News. 

Parks Canada received a report of vehicle collisions with five plains bison on the parkway of Elk Island National Park early Thursday, according to a news release the agency issued Friday afternoon.

The initial crash is believed to have occurred around 4 a.m. MT, Kirkland said. Then, "some time later," a truck hit the same animals.

Three young female bison, one young male bison and a middle-aged male bison were hit, the news release said. Three of the animals died from the collisions; Mounties and Parks Canada personnel had to euthanize two others.

Paramedics responded to the scene, but the people in the vehicles were not injured, the release said.

The national park has now recorded 11 fatal bison-vehicle collisions since 2020, Kirkland said later Friday afternoon, during a virtual news conference.

"We are concerned about the increasing number of these collisions in the past four years," he said.

Kirkland acknowledged that multiple factors could be at play in such collisions, including time of day, weather and road conditions, and speeding. RCMP officials told CBC News fog was a factor.

Parks Canada recently installed more signs in the park advising people to slow down, including one large sign near the crash site, he said. But park staff will evaluate what more can be done.

There will be more measures coming to help protect wildlife in the park, Kirkland said. It was too soon for him to specify what steps will be taken, but he said they include bolstering traffic-calming measures or closing the park at certain times of day.

Tasha Hubbard, a Cree filmmaker and University of Alberta professor, felt grief and anger after learning about the deaths of the bison, in part because such collisions are becoming more frequent.

"It's a tragic incident," Hubbard said. "But it's also where the anger comes from; it's absolutely unnecessary."

The speed limit on the parkway is 60 km/h, according to the park's website. Hubbard recently stayed overnight in Elk Island National Park and heard vehicles zoom around.

"It's sad that people are not respecting that space," she said.

"The onus on the general community to respect that space, respect what's there, realize how special of a place it is and respect the buffalo," she said. "They really just want to live in peace."

Plains bison, once abundant, have been a threatened species in Canada for 20 years, according to the federal species at risk registry. Hubbard and Kirkland noted that the bison in Elk Island National Park are crucial to the conservation effort.

The animal is also significant to Indigenous peoples. Hubbard directed a film, released this year, called Singing Back The Buffalo, which follows Indigenous restoration efforts in Canada and the U.S. to return bison back to the prairie land.

"From our perspective as Indigenous people, the thing I heard the most was, the Buffalo took care of us for a very long time — an almost inconceivable amount of time, when you think about it," Hubbard said. "Now it's our turn to have that responsibility to try to create space for them, so they can live as buffalo.

"So it's frustrating that the park and the animals are being disrespected so much."

Elk Island National Park is urging visitors to abide by the road rules, Kirkland said.