BUCOVINE.com

Bison of Europe

(Bison bonasus Linnaeus)

The largest terrestrial mammal of Europe

The bison of Europe was very frequent on all the European continent, of the Atlantic to the Ural (except Spain, Italy, the Scandinavian peninsula and British Isles), and this until the Middle Ages.

Charlemagne drove out it, just as the aurochs, in the area of Liege and Aachen.

Exterminated in nature after the First World War, the bison of Europe did not survive then any more but in captivity.

It was gradually reintroduced in nature after the second world war.


Biotope

The forest is the natural habitat of the bison of Europe. The remote adaptation of the bison to the forest appears obvious its displacements so much seem easy there: its wearing of head more raised than that of his/her cousin of America facilitates to him the access to the branches as well as the barking of the trunks until a height of more than two meters.

Margeride, with a rather rigorous climate and a strongly timbered territory, is appropriate well for the bisons of Europe.

Behavior

The bison of Europe is an animal of herd. The mixed herd is usually carried out by an adult female and generally does not exceed about thirty bisons.

In summer, they move the night and at the freshest hours of the day to nourish itself; at the hottest hours, they shelter in underwood of the rays of the sun. The winter, they are sédentarisent near the stations of foddering.

In the event of danger, females or males adopt an attitude of intimidation, even aggressive, scrape the ground, balance the head and can even charge.

Food

The food of the bison of Europe is made up of 80% of grass and approximately 20% of ligneous family, which it finds mainly while consuming of the barks, sheets and shrubs.

At the beautiful season the bisons consume mainly fresh grass as well as young growths of trees. In winter a distribution of hay and cereals make it possible to avoid the degradation of the forest.

Reproduction

The period of rut is generally August at October.

Only the adult males are agitated and excited during the season of heats. Their aggressiveness increases and they do not hesitate to clash. Weakest yield in front of the first load of intimidation of a male dominating and flee. They will live at some distances from the herd and do not take part in the reproduction.

The gestation period is of approximately 9 months, it is shorter than at the domestic bovines (10 to 15 days less).

Before the setting-low, the female frequently does not leave the herd and made there any more but of short appearances. Lactation is prolonged during long months and it is not rare to observe one year old calves and, which have a food autonomy, to divide more worse with calf of the year.

The average weight of the male is approximately 700 kg (1 ton to the maximum), and the size can reach 1,80 m, see 2 m, with the garrot.

The female is smaller, with a weight between 350 and 600 kg.
 

Copyright © Bucovine.com - Thanks you not to recopy or transform our original texts without our agreement or those of our authors.

Return to the page Fauna