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Howard Douglas, of Banff, commissioner of Dominion parkswho is in Montreal, informed The Witness in an interview that "Sir Donald," the last of the known buffalo survivors of the countless herds which used to roam the plains of the Canadian west, will within a few weeks be put to death, and later stuffed for museum purposes.
This veteran bull still grazes with the ancient bull of the herd at Banff, but he has long since been driven out from the main body by the younger bulls. Lately he has shown such signs of age that the authorities have decided to end his career, not only out of mercy to himself, but to keep his hide and fur intact for exhibition purposes.
"Sir Donald" is the only living buffalo in captivity who ever roamed the prairies of Canada with the aboriginal herds. He was captured in 1872, as a calf, by the late Hon. James Mackay, who was a noted figure in the early history of Manitoba and the Canadian west. Mr. Mackay was collecting a herd for his private ranch, and captured the calf amongst a doszen others. The herd was kept at Silver Heights, near Winnipeg, for a number of years, and later transferred to Warden Bedson of the Stoney Mountain penitentiary, with whom Lord Strathcona had considerable interest in the preservation of the buffalo.
Later, Sir Donald Smith (as he was then), on the division of the herd, presented this bull with twelve other buffalo, to the dominion government and they were sent to the national park at Banff, where they became the nucleus of the present herd of about a hundred animals.