New bison welcomed at Henry Vilas Zoo

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – Two new bison are getting settled at the Henry Vilas Zoo. The year-old females have moved in with the zoo’s sole remaining female bison, Wilma, and the three have already bonded, according to zoo officials.

“Our entire Zoo staff is thrilled with how well these bison introductions went. 2022 was a hard year for us with the loss of two of our geriatric bison,” Zoo Executive Director Ronda Schwetz said. “We are so happy to have our little herd back.”

The bison came to the Badger State from zoo in Wichita, Kansas, but they arrived missing one important thing: names.

The Henry Vilas Zoo noted their two newest animals do not have names yet. While one might imagine they will get them in due time, the zoo did not indicate how their future monikers will be decided.

The bison arrived just in time for another big change for their exhibit. Zoo officials plan to unveil new North American Prairie interpretive signs next week, along with a statue honoring a previous resident of the bison exhibit. They plan to pay tribute to Beefcake, a male bison who died last year, with a statue made of 200 recycled tires. Funds for the memorial came from a donation by the George A. Fait estate.

Beefcake’s statue will be surrounded by various plants that once grew across the tallgrass prairies that once covered a large swath of Wisconsin. The zoo noted that, once, 2.1 million of the state’s 35 million acres were covered by the prairies. That figure has been slashed to less than 10,000 acres today.

Dane Co. Executive Joe Parisi said the county was excited about its two new residents, and he encouraged people to come see the new prairie exhibit to learn about their importance to wildlife and our environment.

Click here to download the NBC15 News app or our NBC15 First Alert weather app.

Copyright 2023 WMTV. All rights reserved.