Original Range and subspecies ³

The European bison or Wisent (Bison bonasus), used to occur throughout Europe except for the north. Three subspecies existed in the recent past, but only one survives today: (B. b. bonasus). The other two, Carpathian Wisent (B. b. hungarorum) and Caucasian Wisent (B. b. caucasicus) were hunted to extinction. European Bison went extinct in the wild in 1927, but some free ranging population have been established since. Wisent currently occurs in less than 5% of its former range and all populations are the result of reintroductions.

Reintroduction efforts so far ⁴

Free ranging populations have been established in several place in eastern Eruope (Bialowieza forest on the Poland-Belarus border, the Chernobyl exclusion zone on the Ukraine-Belarus border, the Carpathian mountains in Romania), and semi-wild populations behind fences occur in many other European countries.

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Gregor Maclennan, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/roger_g1/35632807473/
2. (c) Stan van Remmerden, all rights reserved, uploaded by Stan van Remmerden
3. Adapted by Stan van Remmerden from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bison_bonasus
4. (c) Stan van Remmerden, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)

More Info

• iNat taxon page
• Animal Diversity Web
• ASM Mammal Diversity Database
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• iNaturalist Mammal Working Group
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