Brunette Island
Encyclopedia
Brunette Island is an island in Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, the largest island in the Fortune Bay
Fortune Bay
Fortune Bay is a fairly large natural bay located on the south coast of the island of Newfoundland, Canada. The Bay is bounded by Point Crewe on the Burin Peninsula and Pass Island at the entrance to Hermitage Bay to the northwest for a distance of 56 kilometers...

.

In 1964, buffalo were introduced to the island as an economic development experiment.
In 1964 an experimental attempt to introduce bison to Newfoundland was made, using Brunette Island as a test site. Although this attempt did not prove to be overly successful
. Since this experiment was conducted, wildlife biologists have continued to use Brunette as a site for wildlife observation and a breeding ground for bison, arctic hare, caribou, ptarmigan, and moose. Except for the bison all of the animal studies and experiments attempted on Brunette Island have been very successful.

The buffalo has long been an important symbol of the west, in both a practical and a spiritual sense. Many decades ago, someone tried to introduce buffalo to a rugged island in the east, and they shipped a trainload of the great beasts to Brunette Island off the south coast of Newfoundland. The project was abandoned and the herd was left to fend for themselves. Accustomed to running free on the western expanses, the buffalo had a hard time adjusting to the rocky landscape, and one by one they fell off the cliffs that line most of the island shoreline. One buffalo was purported to have survived, and a scientific team was sent to investigate. They found the lone survivor, but not long after, he too became a victim of the island cliffs.
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