(Badlands National Park, Facebook)

CASPER, Wyo. — Bison have been released in a 22,000 acre area of Badlands National Park, returning them to an area they haven’t set hoof on since 1870.

Four bison were released in the area on Oct. 11.

“Once numbering in the tens of millions, bison populations dwindled to only 325 by 1884 as westward expansion pressed on,” the World Wildlife Fund says. “Fortunately, forward-thinking conservationists managed to protect those remaining animals and bring them back up to the 20,000 we see roaming today.”

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The WWF along with the National Park Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife and The Nature Conservancy helped support the project.

43 miles of new fence were constructed to extend bison’s range in the Badlands “from 57,640 acres to 80,193 acres—an area more than one-and-a-half times the size of Manhattan Island,” according to the WWF.

“Almost 1,200 of these extraordinary animals live in this space and the population is now large enough to reproduce and increase its numbers naturally,” they add.

Badlands National Park posted this video of the release to Facebook: