Zimbrul - Romanian Buffalo

The European Bison (Bison bonasus), also known as Wisent (/ˈviːzənt/ or /ˈwiːzənt/) or the European Wood Bison, is a... more

by Dan Marinescu

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Zimbrul - Romanian Buffalo

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Dan Marinescu

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Description

The European Bison (Bison bonasus), also known as Wisent (/ˈviːzənt/ or /ˈwiːzənt/) or the European Wood Bison, is a Eurasian species of bison. It is one of two extant species of bison, alongside the American bison.

European bison were hunted to extinction in the wild, with the last wild animals being shot in the Forest (on the Poland-Belarus border) in 1919 and in the northwestern Caucasus in 1927. They have since been reintroduced from captivity into several countries in Europe, all descendants of the Bia�owie�a or lowland European bison. They are now forest-dwelling. They have few predators (besides humans), with only scattered reports from the 19th century of wolf and bear predation. European bison were first scientifically described by Carolus Linnaeus in 1758. Some later descriptions treat the European bison as conspecific with the American bison. It is not to be confused with the aurochs, the extinct ancestor of domestic cattle.

In 1996, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classified the European bison as an endangered species. It has since been downgraded to a vulnerable species. In the past, especially during the Middle Ages, it was commonly killed for its hide, and to produce drinking horns.

The European bison is the heaviest surviving wild land animal in Europe; a typical European bison is about 2.1 to 3.5 m (6.9 to 11.5 ft) long, not counting a tail of 30 to 80 cm (12 to 31 in) long, and 1.6 to 1.95 m (5.2 to 6.4 ft) tall. At birth, calves are quite small, weighing between 15 and 35 kg (33 and 77 lb). In the free-ranging population of the Bia�owie�a Forest of Belarus and Poland, body masses among adults (aged 6 and over) are 634 kg (1,398 lb) on average in the cases of males, with a range of 436 to 840 kg (961 to 1,852 lb), and of 424 kg (935 lb) among females, with a range of 340 to 540 kg (750 to 1,190 lb). An occasional big bull European bison can weigh up to 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) or more.[

On average, it is slightly lighter in body mass and yet taller at the shoulder than the American bison (Bison bison). Compared to the American species, the wisent has shorter hair on the neck, head and forequarters, but longer tail and horns.

The modern English word 'wisent' was borrowed in the 19th century from modern German Wisent [ˈviːzɛnt], itself from Old High German wisunt, wisant, related to Old English wesend, weosend and Old Norse v�sundr. The Old English cognate disappeared as the bison's range shrank away from English-speaking areas by the Late Middle Ages.

The English word 'bison' was borrowed around 1611[ from Latin bisōn (pl. bisontes), itself from Germanic. The root *wis-, also found in weasel, originally referred to the animal's musk.

The word bonasus was first mentioned by Aristotle in the 4th century BC when he precisely described the animal calling it Βόνασος(Bonasus) in Greek. He also notes that the Paeonians call it Μόναπος (Monapos).

Historically, the lowland European bison's range encompassed all lowlands of Europe, extending from the Massif Central to the Volga River and the Caucasus. It may have once lived in the Asiatic part of what is now the Russian Federation. Its range decreased as human populations expanded cutting down forests. The last references (Oppian, Claudius Aelianus) to the animal in the transitional Mediterranean/Continental biogeographical region in the Balkans in the area of modern borderline between Greece, Macedonia and Bulgaria date to 3rd century AD. The population of Gaul was extinct in the 8th century AD. The European bison became extinct in southern Sweden in the 11th century, and Southern England in the 12th. The species survived in the Ardennes and the Vosges Mountains until the 15th century. In the Early Middle Ages, the wisent apparently still occurred in the forest steppes east of the Urals, in the Altay Mountains, and seems to have reached Lake Baikal in the east. The northern boundary in the Holocene was probably around 60�N in Finland.

European bison survived in a few natural forests in Europe, but its numbers dwindled. The last European bison in Transylvania died in 1790. In Poland, European bison in the Bia�owie�a Forest were legally the property of the Polish kings until the Third partition of Poland. Wild European bison herds also existed in the forest until the mid-17th century. Polish kings took measures to protect the bison. King Sigismund II Augustus instituted the death penalty for poaching a European bison in Bia�owie�a in the mid-16th century. In the early 19th century, Russian czars retained old Polish laws protecting the European bison herd in Bia�owie�a. Despite these measures and others, the European bison population continued to decline over the following century, with only Bia�owie�a and Northern Caucasus populations surviving into the 20th century.

During World War I, occupying German troops killed 600 of the European bison in the Bia�owie�a Forest for sport, meat, hides and horns. A German scientist informed army officers that the European bison were facing imminent extinction, but at the very end of the war, retreating German soldiers shot all but nine animals. The last wild European bison in Poland was killed in 1919. The last wild European bison in the world was killed by poachers in 1927 in the western Caucasus. By that year, fewer than 50 remained, all held by zoos.

To help manage this captive population, Dr. Heinz Heck began the first studbook for a nondomesticated species, initially as a card index in 1923, leading to a full publication in 1932.

Although superficially similar, a number of physical and behavioural differences are seen between the European bison and the American bison. The European bison has 14 pairs of ribs, while the American bison has 15. Adult European bison are (on average) taller than American bison, and have longer legs.[18] European bison tend to browse more, and graze less than their American relatives, due to their necks being set differently. Compared to the American bison, the nose of the European bison is set further forward than the forehead when the neck is in a neutral position. The body of the European bison is less hairy, though its tail is hairier than that of the American species. The horns of the European bison point forward through the plane of their faces, making them more adept at fighting through the interlocking of horns in the same manner as domestic cattle, unlike the American bison, which favours charging. European bison are less tameable than the American ones, and breed with domestic cattle less readily

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February 7th, 2015