Caucasian Wisent

Taxobox
name = Caucasian Wisent
status = EX
extinct = 1927
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Artiodactyla
familia = Bovidae
genus = "Bison""'
species = "B. bonasus"
subspecies = "B. b. caucasicus"
trinomial = "Bison bonasus caucasicus"
trinomial_authority = (Turkin et Satunin, 1904)The Caucasian Wisent ("Bison bonasus caucasicus") was a subspecies of Wisent that inhabited the Caucasus Mountains of Eastern Europe.

It was hunted by the Caspian Tiger and the Asiatic Lion (until 10th century) in the Caucasus, as well as other predators such as wolves and bears.

Decline and extinction

In the 17th century, the Caucasian wisent still populated a large area of the Western Caucasus. After that human settlement in the mountains intensified and the range of the Caucasian wisent became reduced to about one tenth of its original range at the end of the 19th century. In the 1860s the population numbered still about 2000, but was reduced to only 500-600 in 1917, and only 50 in 1921.Lidia V. Zablotskaya, Mikhail A. Zablotsky and Marina M. Zablotskaya, Origin of the hybrids of North American and European bison in the Caucasus Mountains. (Text presented in Russian at 2nd Conference of Bison Specialist Group, SSC/IUCN in Sochi, on 26–30 September 1988, and translated into English in 1990, but never published.)] Local poaching continued and in 1927, the three last Caucasian bison were killed Bashkirov I.S. 1939. [Caucasian European bison] . [In: Caucasian European bison] . Council of the People’s Commissars of the RSFSR, Central Board for Reserves, Forest Parks and Zoological Gardens: 1–72, Moscow. [In Russian] ] .

Hybrid survivors

Only one Caucasian bison bull is known to have been in captivity. This bull, named Kaukasus, was born in the Caucasus Mountains in 1907 and brought to Germany in 1908 where it lived until 26th February 1925. While in captivity it bred with cows from the Lowland subspecies "Bison bonasus bonasus".Puzek, Z., et al., 2002, European Bison Bison bonasus: Current state of the species and an action plan for its conservation. Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Bialowieza.] Thus it became one of the 12 ancestors of the present Lowland-Caucasian breeding line of the European wisent pedigree book.Puzek, Z., et al., 2002, European Bison Bison bonasus: Current state of the species and an action plan for its conservation. Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Bialowieza.]

Wisent reintroductions in the Caucasus

In 1940, a group of wisent-American bison hybrids were released into the CaucasianBiosphere Reserve and later in 1959 in the Nalchik Forestry Game Management Unit (Kabardino-Balkariya). Later some pure-blood wisent of the Lowland-Caucasian breeding line were released there to form a single mixed herd together with the hybrids.Lidia V. Zablotskaya, Mikhail A. Zablotsky and Marina M. Zablotskaya, Origin of the hybrids of North American and European bison in the Caucasus Mountains. (Text presented in Russian at 2nd Conference of Bison Specialist Group, SSC/IUCN in Sochi, on 26–30 September 1988, and translated into English in 1990, but never published.)] In 2000, these hybrids are described as a different (although questionable) subspecies, the Highland bison "Bison bonasus montanus" Rautian G.S., Kalabushkin B.A., Nemtsev A.S. 2000. A new subspecies of the European bison, Bison bonasus montanus ssp. nov. (Bovidae, Artiodactyla). Doklady Biological Sciences. 375, 4: 563-567.] .

ee also

*List of extinct animals of Europe
*Carpathian Wisent
*Wisent

External links

* [http://www.petermaas.nl/extinct/speciesinfo/caucasianbison.htm The Extinction Website - Caucasian European Bison - Bison bonasus caucasicus] .
* [http://www.ultimateungulate.com/Artiodactyla/Bison_bonasus.html European bison / Wisent]

References