A European bison stands in the snow, in an established wilderness zone in Brandenburg, Germany, on February 9, 2021.
Ingolf König-Jablonski/picture alliance/Getty Images The return of the European bisonUpdated 6:48 AM EDT, Wed March 26, 2025
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In 2016, ancient cave paintings of giant, horned beasts shed new light on the mysterious origins of the European bison.
These depictions showed a marked change in bison appearance between about 22,000 and 17,000 years ago – horns, humps and forequarters all diminished in size. This added weight to the genetic evidence suggesting that the European bison arose from cross-breeding of the now-extinct steppe bison with aurochs (an ancestor of modern cattle) around this time.
The resulting European bison hybrid – also called the wisent – is the continent’s largest living land animal.
They once roamed across much of Europe and western Asia; however, consistent hunting and habitat loss over the last few centuries collapsed the population. The last wild individual was shot in the Caucasus in 1927, leaving just 54 alive in zoos and private parks.
Since then, breeding programs and reintroductions across Europe have helped the bison bounce back. The IUCN classified the species as endangered in 1996 but, in response to the impressive population recovery, updated their status to near threatened in 2020. Today, there are around 7,000 free-roaming individuals.
With a top speed of 55 kilometers (34 miles) per hour and the heaviest individuals weighing almost a metric ton, the European bison has very few natural predators. Historically, however, humans throughout Europe hunted them intensively for sport, their hide, meat and horns – which were used as drinking vessels.
Radek Petrasek/AP The first European bison reintroductions were in Poland’s Białowieża Forest in 1954, with individuals taken from a local private breeding reserve. The forest had been one of the species’ last remaining strongholds before its extinction in the wild, and it is now home to the largest European bison population in the world, with about 1,000 free-roaming individuals. Kacper Pempel/Reuters The biggest reintroduction to date was in 2014, when more than 80 were brought back to the Țarcu Mountains in Romania – an area where bison had been extinct for 200 years – today the herd numbers around 170. Elsewhere, in areas such as the Arctic tundra, reintroducing bison could help combat climate change. Large herbivores have been shown to reduce woody plant cover, exposing more of the ground to cold air. This helps to maintain permafrost and prevents soil carbon being released into the atmosphere, as well as increasing snow cover, enhancing the albedo effect, when the ground reflects more sunlight back into space, so reducing global warming. Daniel Mihailescu/AFP/Getty ImagesBison aren’t just beneficial for helping environments store more carbon, they’re often described as ecosystem engineers. By debarking trees, they clear wooded patches, allowing grassland plant species to grow. Their unique wallowing (soil-bathing) behavior creates habitats for a host of ground-dwelling insect and reptile species, and by dispersing seeds stuck to their fur and in their dung, they help to further improve ecosystem diversity.
Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images In 2022, free-roaming bison were seen in the UK for the first time in 6,000 years. The flagship Wilder Blean project introduced four individuals to a woodland in Kent, southeast England. More than two years on, four calves have been born in the woodland. By also introducing Exmoor ponies, longhorn cattle, Iron Age pigs, the project aims to help restore the woodland ecosystem to what it once was. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Genetic diversity poses a major risk to the European bison; all individuals alive today are descended from just 12 founder animals. The limited genetic diversity increases the chance of inbreeding and the bison’s susceptibility to diseases. Bison also face the significant threats from habitat fragmentation across the continent – splitting up populations may restrict available food resources for each and further exacerbates inbreeding. Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters While bison have already been reintroduced to sites across Europe, including in Germany, Switzerland, France and Spain, many involved hope that that such efforts will continue to help boost population sizes. There is growing evidence to suggest that bison can live in relatively compact, mixed grassland and forest habitats in close proximity to other herbivores. According to conservationists, this means that far more sites should be considered for future reintroductions. Ingolf K'nig-Jablonski/picture-alliance/dpa/APRetroSearch is an open source project built by @garambo | Open a GitHub Issue
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