Alaska wildlife officials are preparing to release North America 's largest land mammal into its native US habitat for the first time in more than a century . The Alaska Department of Fish and Game plans to begin moving wood bison , which can weigh up to 2,000 pounds and stand six-feet-tall at the shoulder , from a conservation center near Anchorage to the village of Shageluk . A hundred wood bison will be released into the Innoko Flats about 350 miles southwest of Fairbanks in a few weeks after they 're acclimated . Scroll down for video . The Alaska Department of Fish and Game plans to begin moving wood bison , which can weigh up to 2,000 pounds and stand six-feet-tall at the shoulder , to the village of Shageluk so they can be released in a few weeks . The bison will be flown in 20-foot containers that can hold seven adult cows in individual stalls or up to 17 younger bison . Two containers will be trucked Sunday to Anchorage and flown by commercial carrier for the hour flight to Shageluk . A C-130 from Lynden Air Cargo , one of the multiple corporate sponsors involved , can carry two containers each flight . Half the initial herd moved will be adult cows . About 25 are pregnant . The rest of the herd will be juveniles two years old or younger . Bulls will be barged to the area in summer . Wood bison feed on grasses , sedges and forbs and wider variety of other plants like the state 's abundant willow . Biologist Cathie Harms said : 'This has been an incredibly long project - 23 years in the making , . 'To say we 're excited is an understatement . ' The state hopes to complete the flights by Tuesday but will proceed slowly if there are snags . Wood bison are very large , very powerful wild animals , Harms said . She added : 'We 're making them do something they do n't want to do/ ' Once in Shageluk , the bison will be kept in pens several acres large before being released in two or three week after 'they 're in good shape ' . Wood bison are the larger of two subspecies of American bison but did not roam in Lower 48 states . The smaller subspecies are plains bison , which were not native to Alaska but were introduced to the state in 1928 , where they have thrived . Wood bison flourished for thousands of years in Alaska but disappeared in the 1800s or early 1900s . No one knows why . They feed on grasses , sedges and forbs and wider variety of other plants , including Alaska 's abundant willow . The state had a strong interest in reintroduction as a source of food for subsistence hunters and as a game animal for sport hunting , but plans ran into a political snag . Wood bison flourished for thousands of years in Alaska but disappeared in the 1800s or early 1900s . In 2008 , the state imported 53 wood bison from a national park in Canada , adding to a smaller herd that was held at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage . However , wood bison are a threatened species and state officials worried that the federal government would designate their new home in the wild as critical habitat , requiring consultation with federal agencies before oil and gas drilling or other development could occur . The problems were worked out . The US Fish and Wildlife Service in 2013 declared that wood bison reintroduced in Alaska would be considered an experimental population not essential to the continued existence of the species . The wood bison will be managed by state wildlife officials and exempt from certain restrictions in the Endangered Species Act . The Fish and Game Department does not expect predators to be a problem . Biologist Harms said : 'Wolves do n't seem to know what to do with them . ' Alaska did not record a bear or a wolf killing a plains bison until nearly 30 years after they were introduced 87 years ago .
Animals can weigh approximately and are North America 's largest terrestrial mammal . Flourished for thousands of years but disappeared in the 1800s or 1900s . 100 million bison will be released in a few weeks after they ' ve acclimated . They eat grasses , herbs and shrubs and wider variety of other plants .