European bison

Description

The European bison (Bison bonasus),also known as wisent or the European wood bison,is a Eurasian species of bison.It is one of two extant species of bison,alongside the American bison.Three subspecies existed in the recent past,but only one survives today.The species is,theoretically,descended from a hybrid,a cross between a female aurochs,the extinct wild ancestor of modern cattle,and a male Steppe bison;the possible hybrid is referred to informally as the Higgs bison.Alternatively,the Pleistocene woodland bison has been suggested as the ancestor to the speciesEuropean bison were hunted to extinction in the wild in the early 20th century,with the last wild animals of the B.b.bonasus subspecies being shot in the Białowieża Forest (on the Belarus-Poland border) in 1921,and the last of B.b.caucasus in the northwestern Caucasus in 1927.B.b.hungarorum was hunted to extinction in the mid-1800s.The Białowieża or lowland European bison was kept alive in captivity,and has since been reintroduced into several countries in Europe.They are now forest-dwelling.The species has had few recent predators besides humans,with only scattered reports from the 19th century of wolf and bear predation.European bison were first scientifically described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758.Some later descriptions treat the European bison as conspecific with the American bison.It is not to be confused with the aurochs,the extinct ancestor of domestic cattle.In 1996,the International Union for Conservation of Nature classified the European bison as an endangered species.Its status has since been changed to being a vulnerable species.In the past,especially during the Middle Ages,it was commonly killed for its hide and to produce drinking hornsThe European bison is the heaviest surviving wild land animal in Europe;a typical European bison is about 2.1 to 3.5 m (6.9 to 11.5 ft) long,not counting a tail of 30 to 80 cm (12 to 31 in) long,and 1.6 to 1.95 m (5.2 to 6.4 ft) tall.At birth,calves are quite small,weighing between 15 and 35 kg (33 and 77 lb).In the free-ranging population of the Białowieża Forest of Belarus and Poland,body masses among adults (aged 6 and over) are 634 kg (1,398 lb) on average in the cases of males,with a range of 400 to 920 kg (880 to 2,030 lb),and of 424 kg (935 lb) among females,with a range of 300 to 540 kg (660 to 1,190 lb).An occasional big bull European bison can weigh up to 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) or On average,it is slightly lighter in body mass and yet taller at the shoulder than the American bison (Bison bison).Compared to the American species,the wisent has shorter hair on the neck,head,and forequarters,but longer tail and horns