No 55 - European Bison

The European Bison is listed as ‘Vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Speciesä. It is smaller in size and less shaggy than its North American relative but it is in fact the largest herbivore in Europe. The European Bison previously roamed throughout western, central and southeastern Europe. With the advances in agriculture and human expansion it suffered under unlimited hunting and lost much of its natural habitat. It also suffered under unlimited hunting. By the beginning of the 20th Century it only roamed freely in two protected forests in Poland and the former Soviet Union. By 1927, it had disappeared from the wild altogether and only 54 individuals survived in Zoos. 

Re-introductions to forests in Belarus, Poland, Russia, Lithuania and the Ukraine, have been extremely successful. As a result of captive breeding, and intensive conservation management, the total population of free-ranging bison now stands at 1,800 with over 1,400 individuals in captivity.