The European bison is a large cattle relative living in wooded regions of central and eastern Europe.
It has dark brown fur, and both sexes have horns. Males are larger than females.
European bison use some parts of spruce forests more than others. In Poland’s Białowieża Forest, frequently visited and rarely visited places also differed in the richness of plants growing near the ground.
Research published in December 2020 used location records from three males and three females collected in 2012–2015. It considered April–October records, excluding winter when supplementary feeding influences distribution. In May and June 2017, researchers surveyed eighty plots in frequently and rarely visited spruce stands. Ten-by-ten-metre plots averaged thirty plant species in the frequently visited category and twenty-six in the rarely visited category.
Frequently visited plots also had more ground vegetation cover and greater richness of forbs, the herbaceous plants excluding groups such as grasses. Yet canopy cover did not differ significantly between the two categories. The parts of the forest used frequently by bison included wooded patches with a varied layer of plants beneath the trees.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
On 10 December 2020, IUCN reported that long-term conservation management had increased the wild European bison population from about 1,800 in 2003 to more than 6,200 in 2019. Reintroduction from captive survivors had begun in the 1950s. However, many herds remained isolated, and human–bison conflict remained a concern. The announcement highlighted the need for protected areas including open grazing meadows, to reduce dependence on supplementary winter feeding and conflict when bison move onto farmland.