News

Restoring wisents to the Carpathians

03.11.2015

The situation of wisent (European Bison – Bison bonasus), the largest terrestrial mammal on the continent, is far from secure. After centuries of habitat loss and degradation and severe poaching resulted in the near-extinction of wisents in Europe, efforts have been underway to restore this great species to the Carpathian Mountains, part of the species’ original home range and one of the most promising regions for the species’ recovery.

The Carpathian Mountains, the largest and relatively undisturbed mountain range in Europe, offer great potential conditions for the wisents’ further development. Wisents were first successfully reintroduced to the Carpathians in Poland and the Ukraine in the 1960s and 1980s. Currently, around 450 wisents live in the Carpathians in six free-ranging herds (in Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine) and seven breeding centres.

Although the reintroduction of wisents to the Carpathians has largely been a success story to date, challenges remain.

Photo and excerpt of a blog entry by Elzbieta Ziolkowska