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The Caucasian wisent (''Bison bonasus caucasicus'') or dombay (''домбай'') was a subspecies of
European bison The European bison (: bison) (''Bison bonasus'') or the European wood bison, also known as the wisent ( or ), the zubr (), or sometimes colloquially as the European buffalo, is a European species of bison. It is one of two extant species of bi ...
that inhabited the
Caucasus Mountains The Caucasus Mountains * * Azerbaijani: , * * * * * * * * * * * is a mountain range at the intersection of Asia and Europe. Stretching between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, they are surrounded by the Caucasus region ...
of
Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...
.


Description

Little is known about the morphology of this subspecies, including its body size, as its extinction occurred in a time before the onset of many modern scientific approaches. Compared to the extant lowland wisent, the Caucasian bison was more adapted to mountainous habitat.Semenov U.A. of WWF-Russia, 2014, "The Wisents of Karachay-Cherkessia", Proceedings of the
Sochi National Park Sochi National Park (, also Sochinsky National Park) is Russia's oldest national park, established on May 5, 1983. It is located in the Western Caucasus, near the city of Sochi, in Southern Russia. Topography Sochi National Park covers within t ...
(8), pp.23–24, , KMK Scientific Press
It is thought that the Caucasian bison was generally smaller, had shorter and rounder hooves, had more developed
shoulder girdle The shoulder girdle or pectoral girdle is the set of bones in the appendicular skeleton which connects to the arm on each side. In humans, it consists of the clavicle and scapula; in those species with three bones in the shoulder, it consists o ...
s, had significantly thicker and larger horns, less shaggy coats, and curly hairs on the rear of its head.Daniel Foidl, 2013, Over-purity as a danger for the Wisent?, The Breeding-back blog,
Tauros Programme The Tauros Programme, formerly known as TaurOs Project, is a cooperation between the Dutch foundation Stichting Taurus and universities such as the Wageningen University and Research Centre. It is an international effort to breed a type of c ...
It was hunted by the
Caspian tiger The Caspian tiger was a '' Panthera tigris tigris'' population native to eastern Turkey, northern Iran, Mesopotamia, the Caucasus around the Caspian Sea, Central Asia to northern Afghanistan and the Xinjiang region in western China. Until the Midd ...
and the
Asiatic lion The Asiatic lion is a lion population of the subspecies ''Panthera leo leo''. Until the 19th century, it occurred in Saudi Arabia, eastern Turkey, Iran, Mesopotamia, and from east of the Indus River in Pakistan to the Bengal region and the Narm ...
, as well as by other predators such as steppe wolves and
Syrian brown bear The Syrian brown bear (''Ursus arctos syriacus'' or ''Ursus arctos arctos'') is a medium-sized and endangered subspecies of Eurasian brown bear native to the Middle East and West-Central Asia, particularly around the Caucasus Mountains. Charac ...
s.


Extinction and conservation

In the 17th century, the Caucasian bison still populated a large area of the
Western Caucasus The Western Caucasus is a western region of the North Caucasus in Southern Russia, extending from the Black Sea to Mount Elbrus. World Heritage Site The Western Caucasus includes a natural UNESCO World Heritage Site (named 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. In the 1860s, the population still numbered about 2,000, but had been reduced to only 500–600 by 1917 and to only 50 by 1921.. Presented in Russian originally; translated into English in 1990, but never published in that form Local
poaching Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set against the huntin ...
continued; finally, in 1927, the last three Caucasian wisent were killed.
n Russian. N, or n, is the fourteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages, and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...
/ref> Only one Caucasian bison bull is known to have been kept in captivity. This bull, named Kaukasus, was born in the Caucasus Mountains in 1907 and brought to Germany in 1908 where he lived until 26 February 1925. While in captivity, he bred with cows from the lowland subspecies ''Bison bonasus bonasus''. Thus, he became one of the twelve ancestors of the present lowland-Caucasian breeding line of the European wisent pedigree book. In 1940, a group of wisent-
American bison The American bison (''Bison bison''; : ''bison''), commonly known as the American buffalo, or simply buffalo (not to be confused with Bubalina, true buffalo), is a species of bison that is endemic species, endemic (or native) to North America. ...
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. In 2000, these hybrids were described as a different (without scientific basis) subspecies, the highland bison - ''Bison bonasus montanus'' (
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...
).


See also

*
List of extinct animals of Europe This is a list of European species extinct in the Holocene that covers extinctions from the Holocene epoch, a geologic epoch that began about 11,650 years before present (about 9700 BCE) and continues to the present day. This list includes the ...
*
Carpathian wisent The Carpathian wisent (''Bison bonasus hungarorum'') is an extinct subspecies of the European bison that inhabited the Carpathian Mountains, Moldavia and Transylvania regions of Europe. Extinction It began to die out about a hundred years earlie ...
*
Caucasian moose The Caucasian moose, also known as the Caucasian elk (''Alces alces caucasicus'') is an extinct subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live ...


References


External links


The Extinction Website - Caucasian European Bison - Bison bonasus caucasicus

History of the Caucasian European Bison
(In Russian) {{Taxonbar, from=Q2528872 Mammals described in 1904 European bison Mammal extinctions since 1500 Extinct mammals of Europe Species made extinct by human activities Caucasus