Ruud Streefkerk

The Wisent or European Bison (Bison bonasus) is a mammal from the family of cloven-hoofed Bovidae. Along with the American Bison (Bison bison), wisents are the two last remaining species from the genus Bison. At the end of the 15th century the wisent in Europe had become so rare, that measures had to be taken in the form of hunting restrictions. This slowed down the process of extinction, but World War I brought the final blow for the species. The last wisents were seen in 1919. After World War I a successful attempt was made to rescue the species. A herd-book was kept and a breeding program initiated with wisents remaining in zoos and private collections. In 1952 the first reintroduction of wisents took place in the Białowieża primeval forest in Poland, now a National Park. The following year the same thing happened in the Belarusian part of the forest. Nowadays there are free living populations in Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Romania and Germany.