European Bison

Bison roamed Europe long before the first farmers arrived, and the European bison is a true native of the continent. During the Ice Age two kinds of bison shared these lands: the steppe bison, the long horned ancestor of the American bison, and the lineage that led to today's European bison. Cave artists at sites such as Lascaux painted both. A 2016 study of ancient DNA proposed that the European bison arose from crosses between steppe bison and aurochs, the wild ancestor of cattle, more than 120,000 years ago, and that its genome still carries up to 10 percent aurochs ancestry; other researchers explain the same signal differently, so the question remains open. In historical times the wisent ranged from France and the Low Countries to the Caucasus, but forest clearing and hunting pushed it back century by century. By 1900 only two wild populations were left: the lowland bison of Białowieża and the mountain bison of the Caucasus.

The European bison is the heaviest land animal in Europe. Adult bulls usually weigh between about 600 and 920 kg, while cows weigh about 300 to 550 kg. Bulls stand up to about 1.9 meters at the shoulder and measure close to 3 meters from nose to tail. At first glance it can look like its American cousin, but the two differ in several clear ways. The European species has a less pronounced hump, a longer and leaner body, and legs that are proportionally taller, giving it a more upright posture. Its head is carried higher, which suits an animal that browses on branches and shrubs rather than grazing low to the ground, and its horns point more forward. The coat is brown and less shaggy at the front, thickening in winter and shedding in spring, and adult bulls grow a short beard beneath the chin. Both sexes carry short, curved horns, and those of the bulls are thicker at the base.

European bison are most at home in broad leaved and mixed forests, where meadows, river valleys and clearings give them room to graze beside the shelter of trees. Today's range is a patchwork of reintroduced herds across ten countries: Poland, Belarus, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Germany. The Białowieża Forest, split by the border between Poland and Belarus, is the cradle of the recovery and still holds one of the biggest herds. Poland also has a large free roaming population in the Bieszczady Mountains, and Romania's herds in the Carpathians, including the Țarcu Mountains, are among the fastest growing. The largest single free ranging population lives in central Russia, across the Oryol, Kaluga and Bryansk regions, and bison have also returned to the Caucasus. Lowland forests are the classic habitat, but the species does well in mountains too. Many herds still depend on protected areas, controlled hunting nearby and hay put out in winter.

Feeding occupies a large part of every day for European bison. Although the species is often pictured browsing in the forest, studies in Białowieża show that grasses and sedges make up most of what it eats in every season. In spring and summer, fresh grasses, sedges and herbaceous plants form the bulk of the diet, and bison also browse on the leaves and shoots of trees such as oak, willow and hornbeam. Shrubs and ferns are taken when available. As autumn arrives, the animals add fallen leaves, acorns, and the bark and twigs of deciduous trees. Winter is the hardest season: natural food becomes scarce under snow, bison strip more bark from trees, and in many protected areas they gather at places where wildlife managers put out hay. Appetite follows the seasons too. In summer an adult bull can eat around 32 kg of fresh plants in a single day, while in the depths of winter the animals eat far less.

Social life in European bison is organized around sex and age. Females, along with their calves and young from previous years, form loose herds that can number anywhere from a handful of individuals to several dozen. These groups move together, forage together, and offer young animals some protection in numbers. Adult bulls lead a different life: they spend most of the year on their own or in small bachelor groups, only seeking out female herds during the rut, which takes place from August through October. During that period, bulls bellow, wallow in mud, and clash head on to establish dominance and win mating rights. Calves are born from May to July after a gestation of about nine months and can stand within hours of birth. European bison are generally calm animals but will defend themselves if cornered.

Few conservation stories in Europe are as dramatic as that of the European bison. The last wild lowland bison was killed in Białowieża in 1919, and the last wild one in the Caucasus was shot in 1927. By then only 54 animals survived in zoos and private collections. A breeding program built around the European Bison Pedigree Book, a studbook started in Poland in the 1930s, slowly rebuilt the population, and the first herd went back into the wild in the Białowieża Forest in 1952. The recovery has sped up in recent decades: according to the Pedigree Book, there were 12,209 animals worldwide at the end of 2024, of which 9,762 lived in the wild. Russia, Poland and Belarus each hold around a quarter of them. The IUCN moved the species from Vulnerable to Near Threatened in 2020. The status is cautious for a reason: every living bison descends from just 12 founders, many herds are small and isolated, and diseases spread easily among animals with so little genetic variety.