Maverick bison calf that escaped Brokenhead Ojibway Nation herd found safe

A bison calf that temporarily broke free from the herd at Brokenhead Ojibway Nation was just about the age where she must learn how to be more independent, one of her ranch hands says.

The 11-month-old bolted out of the First Nation's bison ranch early Thursday and was loose for about 12 hours in the southeastern Manitoba community before being helped back home.

Drone footage shows the calf trotting on a road while being tailed by a pickup truck and a snowmobile early Thursday morning.

The caper began shortly past midnight Thursday, Brokenhead Ojibway Coun. Christopher Kent said.

Manitoba First Nations Police Service members doing a patrol in the community came across the bison on the road, he said.

Kent assembled a team to begin the search after getting the call. The game was afoot.

"We'd seen the tracks on the road, we tracked it, and we had realized that there was another animal following on the inside of the fence that was likely a mother," he said.

"We kind of put two and two together that this was probably a younger animal, based on the size of the tracks … and the mom still was kind of concerned."

The bison was found some hours later in a heavily treed area near the ranch, Kent said. A group of Brokenhead members, including the ranch's herdsmen, drove her toward the main gate.

"She took some coaxing, because she didn't want to run," ranch hand Brent Lehocky said, adding the vehicles parked outside the building across the road made her hesitant.

"The one guy went around on the Ski-Doo, and [bison are] not used to Ski-Doos," he said. "So she ran from the Ski-Doo towards me, and I was up by the gate and I … just kind of shooed her back in."

Kent said that as herd animals, bison don't want to stray too far from the group. But he said there's a "pecking order," and if a calf gets too close, it may be pushed around — even through the fence.

"That's likely what happened," he said. "But everything worked out great, and she's safe."

Lehocky said the bison was born last April. She would be among the first calves the herd delivered after Brokenhead brought the bison to their traditional lands in late 2024.