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The European bison (pl.: bison) (Bison bonasus) or the European wood bison, also known as the wisent [a] (/ ˈ v iː z ə n t / or / ˈ w iː z ə n t /), the zubr [b] (/ ˈ z uː b ə r /), or sometimes colloquially as the European buffalo, [c] is a European species of bison. It is one of two extant species of bison, alongside the American bison.
Taxidermied specimen, Museum of the Zoological Institute, Russia. In the 17th century, the Caucasian bison still populated a large area of the Western Caucasus.After that, human settlement in the mountains intensified and the range of the Caucasian wisent had become reduced to about one tenth of its original range by the end of the 19th century.
American bison can weigh from around 400 to 1,270 kilograms (880 to 2,800 pounds) [5] [8] and European bison can weigh from 800 to 1,000 kg (1,800 to 2,200 lb). [7] European bison tend to be taller than American bison. Bison are nomadic grazers and travel in herds. The bulls leave the herds of females at two or three years of age, and join a ...
It is one of two extant species of bison, along with the European bison. Its historical range circa 9000 BC is referred to as the great bison belt, a tract of rich grassland spanning from Alaska south to the Gulf of Mexico, and east to the Atlantic Seaboard (nearly to the Atlantic tidewater in some areas), as far north as New York, south to ...
The European bison is the heaviest wild land animal in Europe, and individuals in the past may have been even larger than their modern-day descendants. During late antiquity and the Middle Ages , bison became extinct in much of Europe and Asia , surviving into the 20th century only in northern-central Europe and the northern Caucasus Mountains .
English: Holocene & Historic range map of the two European bison species (Bison bonasus and Bison priscus): Holocene (B. priscus only) in light green; B. bonasus range in the high middle ages in dark green, relict B. bonasus populations in the 20th century in red
It thus has a longer history than the term "bison", which was first recorded in 1774. [12] [full citation needed] The "eastern bison" (B. b. pennsylvanicus) from the eastern United States, a junior synonym of B. b. bison [13] had been called "wood(s) bison" or "woodland bison", not referring to B. b. athabascae. [14]
Bison herd grazing at the CSKT Bison Range. The environment of the great bison belt has been defined by low rainfall, typically less than 24 in (610 mm) per year. In drier areas, annual rainfall was less than 16 in (410 mm). [4] The area has also been unstable and unpredictable. Periods of drought could quickly be replaced by excessive rainfall ...