Threats to the Species Bison bonasus

Abstract

The fate of the European bison offers a good example of how very quickly a species can be brought to the edge of extinction, and how hugely difficult it can subsequently be to make it safe once more. Furthermore, while all the effort made to reinstate this species has been an undoubted success, there remains a need to ask if we can even now rest easy knowing that the European bison’s future is assured. For, while the situation in the early 21st century is incomparably better than that faced as the restitution efforts were just beginning, there are new threats on the horizon. These are primarily of a global nature, connected with the “bottleneck” the species was forced to pass through and hence common to all European bison, wherever in the world (and in whatever circumstances) they may find themselves. Beyond this there is a second group of threats linked to the local conditions in which given wild populations live (Krasiński and Krasińska 2006).