Caucasian Wisent
5218524
225264288
2008-07-12T19:44:23Z
Ghirlandajo
147410
/* Decline and extinction */
{{Taxobox
| name = Caucasian Wisent
| status = EX
| extinct = [[1927]]
| regnum = [[Animal]]ia
| phylum = [[Chordate|Chordata]]
| classis = [[mammal|Mammalia]]
| ordo = [[Artiodactyla]]
| familia = [[Bovidae]]
| genus = ''[[Bison]]'''''
| species = '''''[[Wisent|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 [[bear]]s.
==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]].<ref name="Lidia">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.)</ref> Local poaching continued and in 1927, the three last Caucasian bison were killed <ref name="Bashkirov">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]</ref>.
==Hybrid survivors==
[[Image:Żubr Bison bonasus.jpg|thumb|200px|One of hybrids in Poznań New ZOO]]
Only one Caucasian bison bull is known to have been in captivity. This bull was born in the Caucasus Mountains in [[1907]] and brought to Germany in [[1908]] where it continued its life in captivity. This bull, named Kaukasus, died on [[26 February]] [[1925]], but before that it was crossbred with cows from the Lowland subspecies ''Bison bonasus bonasus''.<ref name="Puzek">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.</ref>
Of the 12 ancestors of today's living wisents, one was this Caucasian bull. Its [[gene]]tics or certainly some of it can still be found in the Lowland-Caucasian breeding line of the European wisent pedigree book.<ref name="Puzek">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.</ref>
==Wisent reintroductions in the Caucasus==
In [[1940]], a group of wisent-[[American bison]] hybrids were released into the Caucasian
Biosphere 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.<ref name="Lidia">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.)</ref> In [[2000]], these hybrids are described as a different (although questionable) subspecies, the Highland bison ''Bison bonasus montanus'' <ref name="Rautian">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.</ref>.
==See 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==
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[[Category:Bison]]
[[ja:コーカサスバイソン]]
[[pt:Bisão-caucasiano]]