Brazen bison makes a break for it from FortWhyte Alive

One of the bison that call FortWhyte Alive home has gotten a brief taste of freedom.

The bison, part of a herd living in an enclosure at the south Winnipeg interpretive centre, slipped out of an open gate Friday afternoon and made a brief dash for it.

But the unbound ungulate didn't get very far, says FortWhyte Alive's president and CEO.

"It was only outside for a few minutes," Liz Wilson told CBC News, explainingone of the centre's neighbours noticed the bison making a run for it and quickly gave them a call.

Buffalo flees FortWhyte Alive

6 years ago

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Buffalo flees FortWhyte Alive

"That neighbour and a staff went out and basically the bison turned around and walked right back into the pasture and we closed and locked the gate behind them again.

"Obviously as soon as we found out about it we were out there within minutes."

Wilson said the curious bison didn't wander too far past the open gate and remained on FortWhyte's property throughout its short lived flirt with freedom.

Wilson said FortWhyte Alive has roughly 33 bison at living on pasture land at the centre.

Following Freddy?

It's not the first time a loose bison has made the news in Manitoba.

Abison that makes a habit of escaping its pen on a farm off Highway 405 between Lorette and Ile des Chnes, Man. has become a sort of local celebrity in the area.

Photos and videos of the loose bison dubbed Freddy by locals often pop up on social media and his exploits spawned shirts emblazoned with the slogan "Run Freddy Run."

There's even been a musical piece written in his honour.

Wilson said FortWhyte's wannabe Freddy was likely just curious about what lay beyond its home, home on the range.

"I think it probably was wondering why the heck the gate was ajar," she said.

"It wanted to explore for a few minutes and realized that this isn'twhere I want to be and turned around and walked right back in."

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