The number of European bisons living in the Czech Republic has been steadily growing since 2010, when there were only 36 individuals in the country, to 164 at the end of last year, according to Miloslav Jirku from the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences (AV ČR), citing the European Bison Pedigree Book.
The count is conducted for the European Bison Pedigree Book by the Ceska krajina (‘Czech landscape’) organisation and the AV ČR Biology Centre.
The bison population in the Czech Republic increased by five over the past year, though fewer calves (21) were born than in the previous two years.
The largest herds live in the large ungulate reserve near Milovice in Central Bohemia, and in the Zidlov game reserve in the Liberec Region (44 and 43 respectively).
According to experts, the success of Czech bison breeding is confirmed by the longevity of the bison. Jirku said that Cvanca, a female living in Chomutov, will be 20 years old in June, which is a respectable age for bison that most individuals do not live to see.
The maximum age given for the European bison, also known as the wisent, is 23 years for males and 28 years for females. In the wild, the highest documented age is 24 years for a female from the Bialowieza Forest in Poland.
Last year, a record number of six bison were moved abroad. Jirku said two bison from Prague and two from Plzen were transported to Azerbaijan, where they become part of the reintroduction programme, and once acclimated to their new environment, they will become progenitors of the emerging new wild population. Two bison of the lowland subspecies moved from Tabor Zoo to the Fruska Gora national park in Serbia, he said.
Several animals from Milovice should be sent to restore the bison population in war-torn Ukraine this year.
“We are also negotiating with Spain and Denmark on the export of the animals,” said Ceska krajina director Dalibor Dostal, whose organisation, in cooperation with scientists, established the Milovice reserve in 2015. “However, exports are complicated by the current disease situation in the Czech Republic in domestic cattle, where restrictive measures unfortunately also affect bison.”
