THE EUROPEAN BISON PEDIGREE BOOK - IN HISTORY AND TODAY BIAŁOWIEŻA 2009
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THE EUROPEAN BISON PEDIGREE BOOK IN HISTORY AND TODAY BIAŁOWIEŻA 2009
TEXT JAN RACZYŃSKI Editor, „European Bison Pedigree Book” MAŁGORZATA BOŁBOT Assistant Editor, „European Bison Pedigree Book” ISBN 978-83-87054-73-1 Copyright © by Białowieski Park Narodowy BIAŁOWIEŻA 2009 TRANSLATION JAMES RICHARDS TYPESETTING AND GRAPHICS ELŻBIETA JABŁOŃSKA PROOFREADING MAŁGORZATA BOŁBOT PRINTING DRUKARNIA CHROMA, Krzysztof Raczkowski, Żary ISSUE 550 COPIES
The first documenting of the pedigrees
of European bison, and its aim
For anyone engaged or interested in the inhabitant of the forests of Continental Eu-
breeding of European bison there is now just rope, had been accompanying humankind
one source of knowledge as to the origin of for literally thousands of year, furnishing
specimens in breeders’ possession, and one our species with meat and skins. Doubtless
basis upon which breeding plans for the fu- such an imposing and powerful beast rather
ture can be drawn up. For today it is impos- rapidly became the subject of awe, perhaps
sible to imagine the manager of a bison herd even religious or spiritual inspiration – as
not having on his/her desk, either a complete one may perhaps deduce when admiring the
set of European Bison Pedigree Books, or cave paintings at Altamira or Lascaux, which
at least the volumes from the last few years, have maintained likenesses of bison on their
these allowing for details of bison owned to walls for some 13 – 15,000 years now.
be compiled, for family trees for individual However, by historical times, that rela-
animals to be drawn up, and for a general tionship with people had deteriorated to the
picture to be gained as to how things are go- point where the species was clearly under
ing with the reinstatement of this once-al- pressure, and in decline. Indeed, by the Mid-
most-extinct species in different countries, dle Ages, it was already gone from Western
and in the world as a whole. and Central Europe, the remaining refuges at
The pursuit of detailed breeding documen- this stage being the still-wild forests of east-
tation on a species saved from total extirpa- ern Poland and Lithuania. As it turned out,
tion began at the very time the idea of rein- however, their fate even there would only
stating that species began to take hold, and prove secure where and when the Polish
that is now upwards of 80 years ago. Bearing Monarchs, and then the Russian Tsars, took
in mind the task still facing bison breeders, active steps to make sure that they were.
there is no obvious sign that the need for That eventually left just two places in the
publication to continue will be fading away world for European bison – the Białowieża
any time soon. Primaeval Forest and the Caucasus Moun-
From the outset, the European Bison Pedi- tains, the population even in this latter wild
gree Book was an international undertaking area becoming extinct in 1927.
requiring harmonious cooperation between At Białowieża, in turn, the fate of the great
breeders in different countries, this needing bovines might have been different had the
to continue no matter what the political divi- Forest not been in the thick of First World
sions between those countries, and no matter War fighting. But the repeated passage
how difficult it might become for those in- through that area of the armies of both sides
volved in the effort to establish and operate had its own direct effect, as well as desta-
it to actually communicate with one another bilising the situation sufficiently to leave the
directly. Things of course look quite differ- local community both suffering and starv-
ent now, in the era of globalisation, when ing. Not surprisingly, the remaining wild
Europe is open to and familiar with joint ac- European bison paid the price for this, and
tions, and when contacts are both easy to es- the very last animals fell prey to poachers
tablish and potentially almost instantaneous. in the spring of 1919 – seemingly bringing
No wonder that work on the EBPB is both a permanent end to the many-thousand-year
easier and more efficient than it once was! reign of the European bison in the great fasts
So, a desire to register the pedigrees of of the Puszcza.
European bison manifested itself as the last Yet post-War Europe was a time of hope
individuals from the free-ranging population for a Poland reappearing on Europe’s maps
in Poland’s Białowieża Forest succumbed in for the first time in 123 years, and with the
the year 1919. Prior to that, the European bi- Białowieża Forest once again located within
son or wisent, once in fact a common enough its borders. When searches made revealed
[]
THE EUROPEAN BISON PEDIGREE BOOK a Forest entirely bereft of bison, it seemed wide, data being compiled by Goerd von all the more of a mercy that some animals at der Groeben, the person appointed in ac- least (in fact some very few) had lived on in cordance with the Society’s Statute to run captivity – in the private animal collections pedigree documentation. This work resulted of the super-rich, and in zoological gardens. in an accurate count of the numbers of ani- But such a situation had inevitably to be mals in existence as of December 31st 1924, an ephemeral one, it being abundantly clear it emerging from this that there were – just then as now that only swift international ac- – 66 individuals left (33,33) [numbers of tion could hope to postpone final, irrevoca- males and females (in that order) are always ble extinction in just a few short years. As given in parenthesis]. On the brighter side, a fate would have it, an occasion to voice these rather small number of adult animals were fears, and to call for the species to be bred accompanied by numerous calves born in back to safety, arose with the 1923 (Paris) 1923 itself (7,6), as well as several young International Congress on Nature Protec- animals born in 1922 (2,5), these facts im- tion. Appearing at this – in his capacity as buing the Erster Jahresbericht der Internat. representative of the Polish State Conser- Ges. z. Erhaltung d. Wisents of 1925 with at vation Commission – was Jan Sztolcman, least a degree of optimism for the future of Deputy Director of the National Museum of the population. Natural History in Warsaw, who proceeded The Society’s logical next step and key to present a general plan to protect (and aim then became to move up from basic in- hopefully save) the European bison. The ventorying to the maintenance of a pedigree plan drew on the experience gained in North record including all the surviving animals, America (primarily the US), where it had and going as far as possible in determining proved possible to bring back the similarly- their genealogy. A particularly vital, if some- endangered American bison, as well as at what demoralising task, was to exclude from Pszczyna (Poland),where breeding had pro- further breeding consideration those animals gressed effectively on the basis of a founder whose pure-blood European bison status group of just a few bison brought there from could not be vouched for, this reflecting the Białowieża. bitter truth that many breeders had played The problem with a European attempt at with hybridization between European and species reinstatement was that – unlike in American bison, an easy enough feat to ac- America – remaining animals were scattered complish, as it turned out, and a “dangerous” very thinly across several countries, making one, since the hybrids are fertile from the it necessary for a truly international effort to first generation, and can also breed success- be mounted. Nevertheless, the motion to that fully with the original species. Hybrids of effect gained acceptance at a Conference this kind, and back-crosses with a significant fully aware that any move towards actual amount of wisent blood in particular, look implementation would have to be a rapid so similar to true, pure-blood European bi- one. son that there is no effective way to tell them It was the Germans who took initiative, apart. under Dr Kurt Priemel, Director of Frank- Under the circumstances, the fears of furt Zoo, the first tangible fruit of this be- breeders acquiring “European bison” that ing the August 1923 founding in Berlin of were actually nothing of the kind was real the International Society for the Protection enough. To this day, the concept of the of the European Bison (Internationale Ges- “pure-blood” European bison remains a vital ellschaft zur Erhaltung des Wisents), which one, and indeed a fundamental argument in commenced at once with energetic action. favour of ongoing compilation of Pedigree The first task was to inventory all the Eu- Books for the species. ropean bison remaining in existence world-
IN HISTORY AND TODAY
The European Bison Pedigree Book – a main instrument
in breeding for species reinstatement
It was under the above circumstances that with the letters “PO”, while those of the
the European Bison Pedigree Book came Pszczyna Sub-Line begin with “PL”. The
into existence, its task being to list and doc- letters “KA” in turn denote animals captured
ument specimens of known origin, the data from the free-ranging Białowieża Forest
included concerning basic identification population.
throughout individuals’ lives, and offering The Pedigree Book goes on to document
sufficient inter-generational information to all changes of owner and hence place of
allow any existing animal to be traced back residence of bison, though the name of the
to the original group within the so-called breeder remains constant. The dates of death
founding herd. v. d. Groeben was able to of animals are also recorded, as are instances
come out with the first such documentation of animals ceasing to be registered for other
for the species as at January 1st 1931 (the ac- reasons
tual publication in 1932 falling among the The situation of the European bison as a
Society’s materials in Das Zuchtbuch). protected species emerged as quite specific
So it was that the European Bison Pedi- in that, at the time the reinstatement effort
gree Book became history’s first detailed got underway, the pedigree listing contained
listing of a protected species, and hence in just a single animal representing the Cau-
some way a predecessor of – and model casian (Mountain) subspecies. The male
for – the Books now run and published for “Kaukasus” was the individual concerned,
a wide range of other endangered animals, he obtaining the pedigree number 100. His
not least the Przewalski horse, snow leopard, offspring and descendents, notwithstanding
and so on. their steadily declining dose of Caucasian
The putting together of the Book gave ef- bison “blood”, continue to be identified as
fect to a number of concepts followed to this part of the separate Lowland-Caucasian
day in registration work of this kind. Every Line of European bison. The lettering used
bison registered and documented is in re- for these animals in the Books is different,
ceipt of a pedigree number unique to it and and a distinct breeding line continues to be
never repeated. This is then the fundamental run for them. Other bison deriving from the
means of identifying the given animal. Other Lowland (Białowieża) Line are treated sepa-
features are a record of the animal’s gender: rately and – thanks to the efforts of breed-
M – for Male, F – for Female), date of birth ers – managed and bred separately from the
(day-month-year), number and name of Białowieża–Caucasian Line as well. Ob-
parents and name of breeder, which is to viously, both lines are entirely made up of
say of the owner at whose centre the given pure-blood specimens at the species level.
animal was conceived. For convenience, The appearance of a pedigree listing of
breeders of newborn animals are supplied European bison did represent a true turn-
with the specimen’s name at the time of reg- ing point when it came to the struggle for
istration in the Book. the species’ restitution. Coming out in 1932,
Nomenclature is regulated in line with the first volume of the Pedigree Book en-
the identification letters breeders them- compassed 177 animals, each receiving its
selves have come up with and submitted to pedigree number and each combining with
the Book’s Editorial Office for acceptance. its fellows to constitute a closed founder list
These are the first 2 (more rarely 3) letters of animals from which all today’s registered
of the names given, and these identify dif- European bison at the different breeding
ferent breeding centres, or sometimes coun- centres are descended. Of course, this does
tries. Thus, Polish European bison of the not mean that all the 177 are co-founders of
Białowieża Line all have names beginning today’s herd. First of all, the list included an-
THE EUROPEAN BISON PEDIGREE BOOK
A unique picture of M 100 KAUKASUS – the only pure-blood mountains bison to survive in the captive
herd, and hence to find himself within the group of founders of today’s European bison population.
All today’s bison of the Lowland-Caucasian Line are in some way descended from KAUKASUS
(from the collection of the International Society for the Protection of the European Bison)
Offloading from the forest railway the crates with the first European bison
brought back to Białowieża in 1929
Photograph: J.J. Karpiński (from the BNP collection)
IN HISTORY AND TODAY
The cow F 13 BISERTA was a representative of the Lowland Line born in Stockholm Zoo but brought over
to Białowieża in 1929. She became one of the founders of the Białowieża herd
Photograph: J.J. Karpiński (from the BNP collection)
imals already dead at the time of the listing, that might be organised today. This is not of
the condition for their inclusion being that course to say that breeders were unaware of
their genealogy was capable of being estab- the need to avoid matings between closely-
lished, and hence their status as pure-blood related individuals.
specimens. Anyway, the facts now tell us that all Eu-
Likewise, as it turned out, the 55 animals ropean bison on Earth today descend from
in the hands of the various owners at the time just 12 animals, of which 7 constitute the
the Society came into existence included bi- Lowland-Line ancestral stock. Such a situ-
son too old to participate in the reproductive ation has been enough to give the strategists
effort. Furthermore, fully effective mixing behind the reinstatement of the species many
of remaining genetic diversity was also ren- a sleepless night, but things are as they are
dered impossible by the degree of dispersal – from the scientific point of view the bison
of breeding centres. Finally, we must con- gene pool is a closed one, and all we may do
cede that the then knowledge of genetics did is take care to use what breeding material we
not in any case allow for the development of do possess as effectively as possible.
the kind of DNA-based breeding programme
THE EUROPEAN BISON PEDIGREE BOOK
M 163 BORUSSE was the first pure-blood European bison to come to Białowieża, in 1929
Photograph: J.J. Karpiński (from the BNP collection)
The Book’s past fortunes
The few years before the Second World
War saw just three successive European
Bison Pedigree Books published. The last
of these depicted the situation as it was in
1936. The early listings had been pursued
further during this period by Dr Erna Mohr,
a Hamburg-based zoologist well-known in
scientific circles, and a person deeply com-
mitted to the development of bison breeding.
Operating within the framework of the Soci-
ety, Dr Mohr rapidly made a reputation for
herself among scientists, and most especial-
ly among bison breeders, most of whom she
knew personally and was in regular direct or
postal contact with. Such contacts were ob-
viously imperative if the purity of the blood
of registered bison was to continue to be
documented and checked out. However, as
Erna Mohr herself conceded, formal control
over the breeders was lost in 1938, though
this did not discourage her from collecting
material for further volumes. Nevertheless,
the Pedigree Book was definitely in danger In the course of her September 1927 visit to Poland,
Dr Erna Mohr is pictured
by this point. at the Bison Breeding Reserve at Białowieża,
Up to that time it had seemed that progress by the enclosure holding bull M 163 BORUSSE
with the work to reinstate a world herd of Eu- Photograph: A. Rząśnicki (from the BNP collection)
IN HISTORY AND TODAY
The cow F 89 BILMA, born at Białowieża in 1913, found herself back at Białowieża in the enclosure in
1935, having been brought in from Stockholm Zoo. Alas, she failed to produce any offspring here
Photograph: J.J. Karpiński (from the BNP collection)
The five-year-old bull M 542 PUZON shown in the Białowieża Reserve. A year later, he was sent to
Niepołomice, where bison of the Lowland-Caucasian Line were gathered together
Photograph: J.J. Karpiński (from the BNP collection)
10 THE EUROPEAN BISON PEDIGREE BOOK
ropean bison could not be deterred as long as other herds around the Reich. The owner
there was still peace in Europe. But this was of the forest was none other than Hermann
an illusion, as the emergence of a totalitarian Göring.
system in 1930s Germany was enough to be- Naturally, the symbolic side of the op-
gin to obstruct the international cooperation eration made it necessary that the breeding
dimension to the work. Nazi circles extended effort should prove a rapid success, even if
to people for whom the “hijacking” of bison that meant that purity of blood could safely
breeding might prove helpful in furthering a be ignored – on this one occasion at least.
career, it being no coincidence at all that the Bison were thus crossed with hybrids, but no
European bison was by then coming to be breeding documentation to this effect ever
seen as symbolic of Germanic tradition. saw the light of day. In fact, the “Schorfheide
One individual with an eye for the main problem” (for bison breeding and reinstate-
chance back then was Dr Lutz Heck, the Di- ment) was actually brought to a definitive if
rector of Berlin Zoo and a staunch proponent brutal resolution in 1945, when the victori-
of National Socialist ideology. It was thanks ous Red Army slaughtered all the animals
to him that Schorfheide (one of the largest they found. A greater problem at this point
forest complexes in Germany located not remained the questionable reliability of the
far at all from Berlin) came to be the seat pedigree data for all the other breeding cen-
of a great breeding centre for “German bi- tres in Germany.
son” that drew in the best specimens from
The Book’s post-War fortunes
World War II changed the world distribu-
tion of European bison possessed in terms of
numbers, as well as leading to a need to ver-
ify different countries and breeding centres
as regards their work to reinstate the species.
At this point, the largest numbers (44) in fact
remained in Poland itself, at several centres
of which the largest at Białowieża held 17
animals that had come safely through the
War. In contrast, the USSR had not a single
bison to its name by this time, all herds es-
tablished thereafter thus arising from animals
transferred steadily to the Soviet Union from
Poland. As was suggested above, knowledge
of the situation in Germany needed radical
updating, with the bison at Munich Zoo, for
example, needing to be checked for signs of
hybridisation.
By this stage, there had been of course
been a ten-year absence of the Pedigree
Book, so breeders could no longer even re-
call the pedigree numbers of the beasts in
their possession. Furthermore, it was im-
mediately apparent that the post-War years Dr Jan Żabiński – the pre-War (post-1929)
were going to see a fundamental division Director of Warsaw Zoo
of Europe, with a great many breeders be- and the first Polish Editor
of the European Bison Pedigree Book
ing stuck on “the wrong side of the Iron
Curtain”, with all the implications that had (from the collection at Warsaw Zoo)IN HISTORY AND TODAY 11
for ease of personal contacts and informa- task might seem. After that, new editions of
tion exchange.However, some kind of nor- the Book would appear every two years.
malisation of relations post-War did lead to A reporting system devised in later years
decisions at the level of the politicians that saw cooperation in the supply of data devel-
the European Bison Pedigree Book ought to op, the Western European information be-
be continued with no matter what. The way ing a matter for Dr Mohr, while Soviet data
in which Nazi action and individuals had were handled by Dr Mikhail Zablotsky – as
dispensed with the idea of maintaining the a scientific employee of the Prioksky Bison
purity of breeding lines had its consequences Reserve near Moscow. It was thus left to Dr
in a decision taken at the International Con- Żabiński himself to compile data for Poland
ference of Directors of Zoological Gardens and the other Eastern Bloc countries.
(held in Rotterdam in September 1946), to As it turned out, the idea of the European
the effect that further leadership of the Inter- bison being reinstated was really able to take
national Society for the Protection of the Eu- off in the post-War years, there thus being
ropean Bison should be in Polish, rather than a major increase in the number of breeding
German, hands, the chairmanship role pass- centres and the numbers of animals being
ing to Dr Jan Żabiński, Director of Warsaw bred. There can be no doubt that this was the
Zoo. Żabiński had in fact been the Society’s solid quantitative phase to the development
deputy head in the pre-War years, so his ap- of the world population – if one that could
pointment in any case represented a natural readily give way to a later stage at which
prolongation of the pre-War situation. quality of stock began to assume greater and
In practice, the main thing to do was to greater importance. Scientific developments
recommence with the publication of vol- were of course supporting this change of em-
umes of the Pedigree Book, a goal and task phasis, as it became possible to rationalise
to which Dr Żabiński commited himself at breeding programmes – and hence coopera-
once, contacting Dr Erna Mohr, who set to tion between breeders and centres – in line
work on the Western European side of the with the new findings in genetics.
equation. Happily, the friendship and close However, by the mid 1960s it was becom-
professional contacts characterising this for- ing clear that the data-gathering system that
tuitous pairing of individuals would ensure had remained in place up to that time was no
publication of the first post-War edition of longer up to its task. For a centralised system
the Pedigree Book as early as in 1947. The of information-gathering was proving harm-
volume in question sought to encompass the ful to the Book’s rhythm of publication.
entire 1937–1946 period, herculean as this
The reform of the European Bison Pedigree Book
and the transfer of its Editorial Office to Białowieża
Specifically, by the late 1960s, the informa- regular and extensive international contacts.
tion released in given editions of the Pedigree Fortunately, Prof. Puck himself proved in-
Book was as much as 5 years out of date, a fluential enough to intervene successfully
degree of slippage that was very much ob- with the Ministerial Board of Nature Con-
structing the real-life, practical work breed- servation in Warsaw, whose decision it was
ers were seeking to do. Letters of complaint to reinforce the EBPB’s editorial team with
pressing for a change in the situation were a post of Editorial Secretary. This position
thus finding their way into the hands of Prof. was in fact taken on by Dr Jan Raczyński,
Zdzisław Pucek, as head of the Polish Acad- a scientific employee of the MRI, who had
emy of Sciences’ Białowieża-based Mam- already studied bison and was quite well-ac-
mal Research Institute, this being an impor- quainted with the necessary editorial work.
tant enough institution to be able to maintain12 THE EUROPEAN BISON PEDIGREE BOOK It was in this way that compilation and was not least memorable for a pile of condi- editing of the Pedigree Book transferred tions to be met and formalities to be com- de facto to Białowieża (for the first time), plied with (including at the Polish Embassy) notwithstanding its continued formal head- that looks nothing short of grotesque from quartering in the Polish capital. This change today’s happier standpoint. resulted in a reform of the means by which The border was traversed at the Friedrich- material was brought together, as well as in strasse S-Bahn station, which served the very the way the finished product (the Pedigree limited border traffic possible for citizens of Book itself) actually appeared, for there was the FRG and residents of the Eastern Zone, now a new graphic element and layout, even and was thus furnished with passport con- though the tables documenting the fates trol. The whole circumstance was favoured of individual bison as regards birth, death, from our point of view as incomers from the change of centre and owner were retained. East by the fact that the S-Bahn was under A new numerical table depicting numbers of GDR ownership and so ran on tickets bought bison at different centres at the end of the with its currency. given reporting year was introduced, and this The visit to the Schaubachs’ in Zehlen- also started to take in animals from breeding dorf district proved a great success from the centres that had appeared in the meantime, Polish point of view, not least because the these only being dealt with quantitatively, in author was regarded as an emissary from the the face of an inability to further track the EBPB Office who was seeking to continue pedigrees of given animals. the work their late sister/sister-in-law had The main problem with the compiling devoted so much time and effort to. I was of material to bring out further editions of able to determine that the card index of bi- the Book lay in the way that direct contacts son plus general material from the German- between the Editorial Office and breeders based Editorial Office remained at the late kept having to be made. The contact was ob- Dr Mohr’s Hamburg flat, though they were structed by a lack of addresses of breeding due to be removed from there at any mo- centres, since the Editorial Office was still ment. I was promised that these documents at that point receiving compilations of data. would be transferred to Białowieża, so all These difficulties further coincided with the that there remained to do was to organise the death of that pioneering compiler of the said transport and find someone who could take data, Dr Erna Mohr (who left us in Septem- charge of the operation over on that side – it ber 1968). quite obviously being impossible for me my- A more favourable circumstance en- self to make a trip to Hamburg (i.a. because sued when the writer of these words (Dr a scientific institution had neither the clout Raczyński) found himself in late 1968/early to organise the passport, nor the funding 1969 on a scholarship-funded visit to Ber- to pay for a visit). What could be secured, lin in what was then of course the German however, was the assurance of the Embassy Democratic Republic. It then proved possi- of the Peoples’ Republic of Poland that our ble to make contact with the late Dr Mohr’s man at the Chamber of Commerce in Ham- sister, Meta Schaubach, who lived with her burg would see to things. husband in West Berlin. A meeting could So it was that the goodwill of E. Mohr’s only come about by virtue of a special pass sister, and her conviction that the deceased’s to cross what was at that time the extremely last wishes were being fulfilled, ensured the well-guarded and firmly-closed border be- safe arrival at Białowieża in spring 1970 of tween the eastern and western parts of the the index of bison, a whole range of personal former German capital. In turn, the issuing correspondence maintained by the leading of the pass was only conceivable thanks to German researcher into their species, and intervention by the Ministry with the then other important materials relating to the authorities of the GDR, who were willing to International European Bison Protection consent on this occasion at least. The event Society.
IN HISTORY AND TODAY 13
The further fate of the Pedigree Book then transferred to Warsaw. The initial destination
took certain unexpected twists and turns. Dr was the city’s Zoo, but this was followed by
Jan Żabiński died in 1974, the Editor nomi- the Institute of Environmental Protection.
nated in his place being Prof. Kazimierz In general, however, this was not at all a
Krysiak, a well-known anatomist and con- good period for the Pedigree Book. Changes
servationist who founded the European Bi- in the makeup of its Editorial Committee
son Research Centre, but who died as rela- were frequent, and regularity of publication
tively soon after as in 1977. Back in 1974, suffered as a result. The quality of editing
Dr Raczyński had relinquished his role as of the editions published at that point also
keeper of the Pedigree Book, and the Edito- unfortunately leaves a lot to be desired.
rial Office (with all its materials) had been
The return of the Book’s Editorial Office to Białowieża
1991 represented a further breakthrough However, in February 1991, a decision was
year in the history of the EBPB. Sixteen taken at the then Ministry of Environmental
years previously, for reasons both political Protection, Natural Resources and Forest-
and personal, the seat of the Book’s Edito- ry which led to the Editorial Office of the
rial Office had been transferred to Warsaw, EBPB being transferred back to Białowieża
with all the attendant impact in terms of National Park, under the editorship of Dr
hindered communications between breed- Jan Raczyński, with the Secretary at the Edi-
ers and the Editor. Successive volumes had torial Office being the writer of these words,
therefore come out after considerable de- Małgorzata Bołbot, M. Eng.
lays, and with 2-year periods therefore being The first and most important task of the
covered. new staff was to bring out another edi-
European bison at Piedrafita de Jaca (Spain), 2003
(from the archive of the EBPB Editorial Office)14 THE EUROPEAN BISON PEDIGREE BOOK
M 9507 POKEMON, Hardehausen (Germany)
Photograph: Rainer Glunz
tion of the Pedigree Book with all possible precluded direct contacts with the actual
haste, the last one to be published having breeders.
been concerned with the state of affairs in But the collapse of the Soviet Union had
1985–1986, and thus containing informa- ushered in a brave new world in which con-
tion for many breeding centres that was very tacts – even breeder-level contacts – had
much out of date. to made with Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania,
In the case of many of the centres, nothing Latvia, Estonia and so on. Establishing them
less than a de novo re-establishment of con- proved a hard slog but, with a concerted ef-
tacts was required if the necessary data were fort on the part of all involved, it paid divi-
to be obtained. A “complication” here was dends. The 1993 volume concerned itself
that the years that had passed had brought with data for the years 1987–1991, and fur-
the collapse of the old Eastern Bloc and the ther editions then began to appear annually.
disappearance, emergence or re-emergence This remains the situation to this day, and
of states. This was of particular significance we may hope that it will continue to be the
when it came to the countries born or reborn case.
of the old Soviet Union, this having been In turn, the ideal scenario now being pur-
such a significant player in bison breeding. sued by the Editorial Office is for successive
While centralised Soviet control over the yearbooks to come out 6 months or less into
different bison herds might have had some the subsequent year. This is obviously being
pluses when it came to the ready supply of worked for in the name of release to breeders
data (which were transmitted by a single of information that is as up-to-date as pos-
specially-authorised person), it absolutely sible.IN HISTORY AND TODAY 15
The present situation of the European Bison Pedigree Book
and of bison breeding around the world,
as well as the roles of individual breeders in founding the Book
The existence or non-existence of con- tres. This is a matter of major significance,
secutive volumes of the Pedigree Book that since it is the documents in question that can
come out less than half a year after the re- vouch for an animal’s pedigree, and hence
porting year is not in fact a matter of the attest to purity of blood (by confirming that
Editorial Office’s efficiency of performance. an animal is not the product of hybridisation
This is because so very much depends on the with either American bison or cattle). There
breeders themselves, and on their capacity to are cases in which breeders (in particular
submit relevant data in the first few months new ones remaining unaware of the require-
of each new year. Alas, there remains a hard- ments needing to accompany transactions)
core of breeders who have not chosen to get purchase a bison without the necessary cer-
in touch with the Office for a long time now. tification provided by confirmed pedigree
This despite a number of requests and re- number, name of animal, date and place of
minders, sent by traditional post and e-mail. birth and identity of parents. An animal of
Even attempts to get to given breeders via this kind will never gain registration in the
other breeding centres or private persons EBPB and is thus in essence lost to the world
maintaining friendly relations with us also population of the species, since its offspring
fail in some cases. This of course explains and descendents will likewise be left out of
why so many of the centres dealt with in future Pedigree Books.
the Book are marked with asterisks, while a For these reasons we again make a heart-
good number of centres (and their individual felt appeal to breeders not to sell bison on to
bison) have over the years been struck from any old dealer, but rather to deal with reliable
the register altogether, on account of the fact intermediaries prepared to take the trouble to
that too much time has elapsed without any attend to the necessary formalities required
information at all on a given herd. Such a as animals are transferred to new owners. A
situation for example applied as work on the similar appeal goes out to purchasers them-
editions concerning 1994, 1995 and 1996 selves, to the effect that they should never
was being done. buy animals of unknown origin that lack the
Happily, some of the scratched breeding relevant documentation! The later determi-
centres have been re-registered subsequent- nation of the pedigree of such animals is at
ly, along with their old or newly-acquired best at very difficult matter and at worst not
animals. Indeed, we may even note how possible at all.
some breeding centres have spontaneously Happily, the current situation the Europe-
re-established contacts with the Editorial Of- an bison finds itself in is not the dire one it
fice, making the status of herds and account once was, though in no way can the numbers
of ongoing changes therein more up-to-date be described as high when there are still just
and reliable than may have been the case 4000 or so animals on Earth. Worse than that
before. Nevertheless, it remains true that is the fact that this world population derives
most of the breeding centres struck off the from such a very small founder group (of 12
list have never responded to our requests for animals in the case of the Lowland-Cauca-
information. sian Line, just 7 where the Lowland Line is
A further major problem is posed by some concerned). And, while numbers are rising
of those who intermediate in the trade in steadily from year to year, there remains no
animals. These are people who attach no way of knowing what problems may afflict
importance whatever to the documentation the species in the future. European bison are
that ought to accompany European bison as prone to suffer from, and even die of, foot-
they arrive at their purchasers’ breeding cen- and-mouth disease, disease of the prepuce,16 THE EUROPEAN BISON PEDIGREE BOOK
The herd of bison at Hardehausen (Germany)
Photograph: Rainer Glunz
A radio-collared bison in Russia
Photograph: Taras SipkoIN HISTORY AND TODAY 17
A bison of steel – the symbol of the Avesta Stainless plant at Avesta (Sweden)
Photograph: Yngve Mattiasson
blue-tongue disease, tuberculosis, diarrhoea mainly supporting free-ranging bison, while
and worm infestations. These sometimes as- Germany has captive breeding. There is rea-
sume epidemic proportions, and may thus son to expect that the so-called breeding in
decimate herds, making it particularly im- semi-wild conditions will become more and
portant that some bison at least are present more popular as time goes by, the animals
in well-dispersed and small groups isolated being kept in a fenced-in area, but this be-
from others. ing large enough to ensure that the breeder
Breeders themselves are a great help here, cannot always identify given individuals,
continuing to show great interest in raising This is why such centres are documented in
world numbers of bison. Indeed, this interest the Pedigree Book in terms of nothing more
is not even confined to Europe as the home- than the overall size of herd, plus a division
land of the species, since there are breeding into male or female. The same principles ap-
centres in Canada and the USA too (if fewer ply to free-ranging populations.
now than before), as well as in Brazil and Semi-wild herds were present previously in
South Africa. These are of course mainly the USA (GURLEY), and are still managed
show animals in zoos and private collec- in the Russian Federation (CHERGA) and
tions, but then it was precisely thanks to Ukraine (ZALISSKA). Recently, this kind
such enthusiasts that the species survived the of breeding has also commenced in Romania
post-WWI extermination at all. (at NEAGRA BUCSANI and NEAMT), and
The fact nevertheless remains that the most recently of all (since 2008) it has con-
key large breeding centres are in Europe, as cerned the RÉSERVE BIOLOGIQUE DES
it should be. The most important countries MONTS D’AZUR in France.
(in order) are Poland, Belarus, Russia and It remains a priority in bison-breeding
Germany, albeit with the first three countries around the world to maintain the separate18 THE EUROPEAN BISON PEDIGREE BOOK identities of the two breeding lines (Lowland Marcel Lehocki is someone who helped us and Lowland-Caucasian). In the EBPB itself, out a great deal when it came to determining the names given in bold are of Lowland-Line the pedigrees of bison at the Topol’čianky bison. The names of breeding centres devot- breeding centre in Slovakia. It is thanks to ing themselves to this Line only are treated him that all the bison now living at that cen- in a similar way in the Book. The names of tre enjoy EBPB documentation, while the Lowland-Caucasian bison, and of breeding name of centre as a whole has ceased to be centres for them (or for both Lines in a sin- accompanied by an asterisk. gle herd) are in turn given in normal print. Conrad Enseñat and Maria Gómez de Se- And finally to the very important matter gura helped with updating the documenta- of the bison breeders themselves – a large tion as regards the bison herd at Barcelona group of people very dedicated to the task Zoo. at hand, competent and only too happy to Papšys Rytas disappeared from the list of cooperate with the Editorial Office for the bison breeders for a while, only to return and European Bison Pedigree Book. It is impos- supply up-to-date information on the bison sible to overestimate the role of these indi- present at two Lithuanian breeding centres: viduals, hence the desire to list at least a few the captive breeding centre of Panevėžys- of them right here and now. Pašilių Stumbrynas and the PANEVĖŽYS- Taras Sipko has supplied information on the PAŠILIŲ STUMBRYNAS centre with its bison in Russian collections for several years free-ranging herd. now, though his role also extends beyond Ints Mednis in turn furnished information that country’s borders. Thanks to Taras’s in- on two breeding centres in Latvia, i.e. Lake volvement it has proved possible to obtain Pape and Kalvene Zoo. Ints also offered as- information on breeding centres in Ukraine sistance with contacting two other Latvian after a great many years with no news. In centres which had systematically failed to particular, Taras put the Office in touch with respond to our attempts to make contact, Vladimir Vovchenko, who has been supply- thus mailing to supply information on the ing us with data compilations on the Ukrain- situation of specimens in Riga and Vestina. ian bison for a year now. Kris Jansen supplied detailed explanations Razvan Deju has been the one to send us regarding the pedigree of bison present for information on the whole set of Romanian a period at Mierlo (Dierenrijk Europa in centres for many years now. Razvan has The Netherlands) prior to their transfer to dedicated himself to ensuring that the spe- the Lake Pape and Zoo Kalvene centres in cies remains extant in Romania. Ever ready Latvia. to supply clarification as and when pedigrees Rainer Glunz is a breeder from Harde- are in doubt, he is a fine colleague, and above hausen who never turns down our requests all the man behind some very effective coop- for help in obtaining information on bison at eration. German breeding centres other than his own, Tommy Svensson and Erland Wadsten and he also helps us to make sense of various are two individuals from Sweden who are unclear situations as regards those centres. of great importance to the Book. Tommy There is of course a long enough list of other supplies information on the two large bison breeders who keep in touch with the Edito- breeding centres at Avesta and Eriksberg, rial Office and to whom we are most grateful while Erland has been dealing with Stock- for information supplied. holm, Höör, Kolmården and Lycksele. All THANK YOU! praise to them for what they do! For it is We count on future cooperation too, as thanks to their efforts that the population of much for the good of the European bison bison at all the Swedish breeding centres is as for ourselves. May the population of this reliably known and up-to-date. At present, beautiful and still-rare animal continue to not a single Swedish breeding centre has its grow steadily! name marked with an asterisk.
IN HISTORY AND TODAY 19
F 9726 POJAWINKA with her 1-day-old calf, F 11410 USARA, at Prätenow (Germany), 18.06.2009
Photograph: Dirk WeichbrodtF 20 BEATRICE with her 4-day-old calf M 244 ARCOMES at Amsterdam Zoo (The Netherlands),
22.09.1934 (from the archive of the EBPB Editorial Office)
M 3049 ZORTAN at the Zoo in Kraków (Poland) in winter 1979. Photograph: A. TurczańskiYou can also read
