Movements of European bison (Bison bonasus) beyond the Białowieża Forest (NE Poland): range expansion or partial migrations?

Abstract

The European bison is the largest terrestrial mammal in Europe. After extinction in the wild at the beginning of the twentieth century, it was re-introduced to Białowieża Forest and other woodlands in Eastern Europe. In this paper, we analysed the movements of European bison beyond the continuous woodlands of the Białowieża Forest (NE Poland) between 1964 and 2010. In total, 1,117 direct observations of bison were collected. The number of males moving out of the forest fluctuated during the study period, whilst the number of females steadily increased. The number of male observations outside of the forest per annum was dependent on the population size and snow depth, whilst the number of cows in mixed groups moving outside of the forest was correlated with the population size only. Males were observed mainly alone (50 % of observations) or in small groups of two to three individuals (25 %); however, distribution of group size differed from those observed in the population. There was a significant difference between the direction of movement of males and females out of the forest—males moved mainly west and southwest, whilst females moved to the north. This was also significantly different from the expected movement direction. The mean distance of bison observations from the forest border was 1.8 ± 0.13 km and did not differ significantly between sexes. After 1990, males were observed significantly farther away from the forest (2.2 km) than in the previous years (0.9 km). Most observations (94 % of bulls and 93 % of cows) were up to 5 km from the forest edge. The range of bison in the vicinity of the Białowieża Forest was strictly seasonal. Most observations (78 % in males and 88 % in females) were recorded from November to April. Increasing utilisation of areas beyond the forest habitats may be driven by different factors but most probably it is related to range expansion and the bison's preference for open habitats. The strong seasonal pattern of bison movements indicate that the partial seasonal migrations were initiated in the Białowieża population.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13364-013-0136-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Serological Study of Exposure to Selected Arthropod-Borne Pathogens in European Bison (Bison bonasus) in Poland

“…However, male bison may be exposed to different midge subpopulations as they dwell on larger acreages and are often seen grazing the pastures of neighbouring farmland. No statistical differences in the distances made by adult European bison males and females were observed after monitoring by telemetric collars, which may be due to the fact that most of data were collected during the cold months (November–April) (Kowalczyk et al., ). However, it was proven that the males move significantly further away from the forest comparing to the females.…”

Risk perception by endangered European bison Bison bonasus is context (condition) dependent

“…In effect, this leads to humanwildlife conflict and bison disturbance because bison damage farm crops, such as winter green rape and cereals, and hay stored by farmers on meadows that were mown to obtain European Union (EU) subsidies. The amount of hay available for bison in the northern vicinity of the Białowie_ za Forest-an area of regular winter bison movements (Kowalczyk et al 2013)-increased substantially after EU subsidies became available (after Poland's accession to the EU in 2004) (Hofman-Kamińska and Kowalczyk 2012). These artificial forage patches provided an ideal GUD measurement as they are foraged at different rates and are situated at varying distances from different potential sources of risk for bison.…”

Untangling the Evolutionary History of European Bison (Bison bonasus)

“…Following the mid-Holocene elm decline and neolithisation of Europe, Bb2 appear to have recolonised the continent. Population expansions following periods of extensive forest reduction combined with a decrease in anthropogenic pressures suggest that Bb2 remain preferentially adapted to an open steppe environment through to the present day, which is supported by numerous morphological, behavioural and isotopic studies of modern bison (Mendoza and Palmqvist, 2008;Kerley et al, 2012;Kowalczyk et al, 2013;Bocherens et al, 2015;Hofman-Kamińska et al, 2018).…”