The National Park Service has transferred 31 bison from Grand Canyon to the InterTribal Buffalo Council who will take to join the herd with the Quapaw tribe in Oklahoma.
Officials say that concludes the Grand Canyon National Park's pilot program for corralling and relocating bison from the North Rim.
Biologists from the Kaibab National Forest, Yellowstone National Park, Badlands National Park, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the InterTribal Buffalo Council assisted in the corralling of the bison.
In a written statement, the National Park Service said several additional animals were outfitted with tracking collars and released during the corralling process.
The collaring was conducted with the assistance of U.S. Geological Survey scientists for park wildlife biologists to study the bison migratory patterns and population size.
The goal of the pilot program was to capture and relocate up to 100 bison.
There are about 600 bison on the North Rim, and Grand Canyon National Park is reducing the size to under 200 over the next few years to protect park resources from the impacts of the bison population.
