Beloved Drumheller dinosaur set for tests ahead of possible extinction

Bill Graveland · The Canadian Press

· Posted: Jun 29, 2025 12:17 PM EDT | Last Updated: 8 hours ago

Tyra the Tyrannosaurus is acceptable to beryllium poked and prodded this autumn to find whether the towering, monstrously popular Drumheller, Alta., icon tin beryllium saved from extinction.

Mayor Heather Colberg says a method cheque volition find however overmuch enactment — and wealth — whitethorn beryllium needed to support the 25-metre fig successful its existent spot dominating the skyline of the municipality northeast of Calgary.

"We've agreed connected the engineering study, truthful that's going to instrumentality spot astir apt this fall," said Colberg, who besides is leaving bureau this fall. "Once that is done then, we'll person a bully thought what her longevity is and everything astir her, and past hopefully we tin marque a determination earlier I'm gone."

"If, each of a sudden, they travel and accidental she's really going to autumn apart, past that's a full antithetic discussion. But if they accidental she's bully for 30 years and she mightiness request an outer coating, past that's different, too."

Tyra is 4 times the size of a existent T. Rex and attracts 150,000 visitors a year, serving arsenic the backdrop to hundreds of thousands of tourists' photos implicit the past 4th of a century.

She stands crossed from the intersection of Gorgosaurus Street and Tyrannosaurus Drive adjacent a visitant accusation centre. A adjacent crystal pick basal offers fossils, T-shirts and dino toys. Tourists tin ascent 106 stairs done Tyra's innards to basal wrong her rima and look down.

Set to spell extinct successful 2029

While the municipality owns the onshore wherever she's located, the Drumheller and District Chamber of Commerce owns the attraction. The enclosure has said the dinosaur is acceptable to beryllium dismantled erstwhile the lease runs retired successful 2029.

That announcement has resulted successful a nationalist backlash, including 25,000 names connected a petition calling for her to beryllium spared. The Town of Drumheller besides demanded meetings with the enclosure and Travel Drumheller.

The municipality announced successful April the 3 groups would research options, and the engineering survey flowed from that.

Colberg said she's optimistic the landmark won't spell the mode of the dinosaurs.

"I would beryllium amazed if she's not [saved]," Colberg said. "There's got to beryllium a solution. I'm not giving up."

The municipality of 8,400 bills itself arsenic the Dinosaur Capital of the World. Home to the famed Royal Tyrrell Museum, the assemblage besides has statues of dinosaurs that look similar they crawled retired of the Flintstones cartoon, greeting radical connected the streets.

Colberg said she was initially amazed — but past not amazed — astatine the magnitude of nationalist attraction that Tyra's imaginable demise has garnered crossed Canada.

"People similar the dinosaurs and emotion coming present for the dinosaurs," she said. "When you beforehand that you're the dinosaur superior of the satellite with the world's largest dinosaur, that's what radical expect to see."

Keri Looijen, selling manager with Travel Drumheller, told CBC News that the economical interaction of dinosaur tourism arsenic a full is important to see arsenic talks with the municipality and enclosure continue.

"We are a tourism-based town, and that is our biggest manufacture here," she said.