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CELPIP Practice Reading: Reading for Information ID: #63106 Medium Plains bison: grassland restoration and herds

Read the following passage.

A. For thousands of years, plains bison moved across the Great Plains in the millions, and before European settlement tens of millions of them roamed the prairies freely. Bison shaped the grassland through their grazing and sustained the Indigenous peoples who lived on the land. As the fur trade, farming and settlement spread west, the herds were hunted without limit and their habitat was lost. Within a single human lifetime, bison in North America fell to fewer than 1,000 animals, and by the 1880s the great herds of the plains had been pushed to the brink of extinction.

B. A turning point came early in the next century. The Canadian government purchased one of the last and largest remaining herds, the Pablo-Allard herd of Montana, and between 1907 and 1912 more than 700 wild bison were shipped by train to Elk Island National Park, east of Edmonton. Most were later moved on to Buffalo National Park near Wainwright, Alberta, but about forty stayed at Elk Island, and today's herd there descends from those few animals. Because the Elk Island bison have no record of cattle or wood bison genes and are free of diseases of concern, they have become a source for new herds.

C. In December 2005, after an absence of 120 years, 71 plains bison from Elk Island arrived at Grasslands National Park: 30 male calves, 30 female calves and 11 yearlings. They spent their first winter in a holding area and were released on May 24, 2006, into about 181 square kilometres of the park's West Block. Their grazing, combined with fire, creates a patchwork of habitats. Their habit of wallowing, or rolling in the dirt, leaves shallow bowls of bare soil that fill with water after spring runoff or heavy rain. The park now keeps its herd at 400 to 500 animals.

D. Animals removed from park herds help start new ones. In 2019 six adult bison went from Grasslands to Wanuskewin Heritage Park in Saskatoon. In 2017, 16 plains bison from Elk Island were released in Banff National Park, and by 2024 the herd had grown to more than 130 animals. Short sections of wildlife-friendly fence and herding keep the free-roaming herd inside a home range of about 1,200 square kilometres. The work has been shaped by Indigenous ceremony and knowledge, through collaboration with First Nations including the Stoney Nakoda, Siksika, Piikani and Kainai Nations.

E. Not given in any of the above paragraphs.

Decide which paragraph, A to D, has the information given in each statement below. Select E if the information is not given in any of the paragraphs.

- 1.
A small group put into Banff in 2017 had become a herd of well over a hundred within seven years.

- 2.
Visitors can follow a road through the West Block to watch the Grasslands herd.

- 3.
A few dozen animals from the Montana purchase stayed behind, and Elk Island's current herd comes from them.

- 4.
By rolling on the ground, the animals make hollows that later hold water.

- 5.
The government bought the Montana herd mainly to provide meat for new farm families.

- 6.
The first group sent to Grasslands was made up entirely of young animals.

- 7.
Bison numbers dropped from many millions to under a thousand within one person's life.

- 8.
Several First Nations have worked with the park on bringing bison back to Banff.

- 9.
Long ago, the animals both altered the land they fed on and supported the people living there.

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