Woolly beasts back in Forest (From Salisbury Journal)

Woolly beasts back in Forest

3:22pm Wednesday 22nd February 2012 in News By Karen Bate

THEY are big, they are unpredictable and they have been extinct in the wild since 1919, but now three woolly bison are back in Britain and living at a New Forest wildlife park.

Europe’s largest land mammal, the woolly bison, has been introduced to the New Forest Wildlife Park near Longdown.

The three young males are from a captive breeding programme and it is hoped they will soon have some female company so the park can begin breeding its own herd of the 6ft-plus beasts, which have a worldwide captive population of just 54.

The trio are all aged three to four years and have been included in a captive breeding programme, which it is hoped will lead to more European bison across their native continent in the future.

Park manager Jason Palmer said that the huge bison can go from calm and placid to 'full attack mode' in seconds.

“They weigh about a ton and they’re quite fast – you should never try to outrun them.”

The European bison closely resemble their North American cousins but are considered a separate species.

By the early 1900s the species was on the brink of extinction and could only be found in two protected areas – the ancient forests of the former Soviet Union and in Poland.

It was thought that the last wild bison was shot in the Bialowieza Forest in Poland in 1919 and by 1927 the only members of the species left were living in captivity in European zoos.

Numbers were down to the last 54 animals and although the species is still considered vulnerable the population has increased due to successful captive breeding programmes.