Wisent

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{{Taxobox | color = pink | name = Wisent | status = Conservation status: Endangered | image = Зубр.jpg | image_width = 250px | regnum = Animalia | phylum = Chordata | classis = Mammalia | ordo = Artiodactyla | familia = Bovidae | genus = Bison | species = B. bonasus | binomial = Bison bonasus | binomial_authority = (Linnaeus, 1758) }}

The Wisent is the European bison, species Bison bonasus.

The wisent is Europe's heaviest land animal. A typical individual is about 2.9 m long and 1.8–1.9 m tall, and weighs 300 to 920 kg. It is shorter and less massive than its close relation, the American bison (Bison bison). Their hair on the neck, head, and forequarters is shorter than American bison. Wisent are forest dwelling animals. They have few predators with only scattered reports from the 1800s of wolf and bear predation.

It was first described in scientific literature by Linnaeus in 1758. Some later descriptions treat the wisent as conspecific with the buffalo. It is not to be confused with the aurochs.

They were commonly killed to produced hides and drinking horns.

1 Near-extinction
2 More details
3 Trivia
4 See also
5 External links

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Near-extinction

Image:Wisent.jpg Image:BisonBonasus.jpg In Western Europe, wisent were extinct by the 11th century except in the Ardennes, where they lasted into the 14th century. The last wisent in Transylvania died in 1790.

In the east, wisent were legally the property of the Polish kings, Lithuanian princes and Russian Tsars. King Sigismund the Old instituted the death penalty for poaching a wisent in the mid-1500s. The last wild wisent in Poland was killed in 1919 and the last wild wisent in the world was killed by poachers 1927 in the Western Caucasus. By that year fewer than 50 remained, all in zoos.

Wisents were re-introduced successfully into the wild beginning in 1951. They are found living free-ranging in forest preserves like Western Caucasus in Russia and Białowieża Forest in Poland and Belarus. Free-ranging herds are found in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and Kyrgyzstan. Zoos in 30 countries also have quite a few animals. There were 3000 individuals as of 2000, all descended from only 12 individuals. Because of their limited genetic pool, they are considered highly vulnerable to diseases like foot and mouth disease.

In 1996 the IUCN classified the wisent as endangered.

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More details

Image:Soviet Union-1969-stamp-Wisent-10K.jpg Wisent have lived as long as 28 years in captivity although in the wild their lifespan is shorter. Productive breeding years are between 4 and 20 years old in females and only between 6 and 12 years old in males. Wisent occupy home ranges of as much as 100 square kilometers and some herds are found to prefer meadows and open areas in forests.

Wisent can cross-breed with American bison. The products of a German interbreeding program were destroyed after the Second World War. This program was related to the impulse which created the Heck cattle. The cross-bred individuals created at other zoos were eliminated from breed books by the 1950s. A Russian back-breeding program resulted in a wild herd of hybrid animals which presently lives in the Caucasian Biosphere Reserve (550 individuals in 1999). There are also bison-wisent-cattle hybrids. In 1847 a herd of bison-cattle hybrids named żubroń was created by Leopold Walicki. The animal was to become a durable and cheap alternative to cattle and the experiment was continued until late 1980's. However, although it ended up with success, it was discontinued and currently the only surviving herd consists of just a few animals.

Three sub-species have been identified:

Lowland bison - Bison bonasus bonasus (Linneus, 1758) – (from Białowieża Forest)
Hungarian (Carpathian) bison - Bison bonasus hungarorum - extinct
Caucasus bison - Bison bonasus caucasicus - extinct, although one individual, a bull named Kaukasus was one of the 12 founders of the modern herds

The modern herds are managed as two separate lines - one consisting of only Bison bonasus bonasus (all descended from only 7 animals) and one consisting of all 12 ancestors including the one Bison bonasus caucasicus bull. Only a limited amount of inbreeding depression from the population bottleneck has been found, having a small effect on skeletal growth in cows and a small rise in calf mortality. Genetic variability continues to shrink. From 5 initial bulls, all current wisent bulls have one of only two remaining Y chromosomes.

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Trivia

Wisent (Zubr in Slavic languages) is the largest wild animal in Belarus, and it is a national symbol of Belarus today.
Żubrówka vodka is (indirectly) named after this animal: it is a bitter tincture of the "bison grass".

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