View source for Biology:Caucasian wisent

{{Short description|Extinct bison subspecies}}
{{Subspeciesbox
| name = Caucasian wisent
| image = CaucasianBison-Demidoff1898.png
| image_caption = An image of a killed Caucasian bison from E. Demidoff's book ''Hunting Trips in The Caucasus'' (1889)
| status = EX
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| status_ref = <ref name=iucn>{{cite iucn |author=Plumb, G. |author2=Kowalczyk, R. |author3=Hernandez-Blanco, J.A. |date=2020 |title=''Bison bonasus'' |volume=2020 |page=e.T2814A45156279 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T2814A45156279.en |access-date=13 November 2021}}</ref>
| extinct =
| genus = Bison
| species = bonasus
| species_link = Wisent
| subspecies = caucasicus
| authority = (Turkin & Satunin, 1904)
}}

The '''Caucasian wisent''' (''Bison bonasus caucasicus'') or '''dombay''' (''домбай'')<ref name=WWFRussia/> was a subspecies of [[Biology:European bison|European bison]] that inhabited the [[Place:Caucasus Mountains|Caucasus Mountains]] of [[Place:Eastern Europe|Eastern Europe]].

==Description==
[[File:Кавказский зубр.jpg|thumb|left|An alleged wild caucasian bison in 1900s]]
Little is known about morphological details of this subspecies including body size due to extinction before modern scientific approaches were made.<ref name=WWFRussia/>

Comparared to the extant lowland wisent, the Caucasian bison was more adapted to mountainous habitat.<ref name=WWFRussia>Semenov U.A. of [[Organization:World Wide Fund for Nature|WWF]]-Russia, 2014, "The Wisents of Karachay-Cherkessia", Proceedings of the Sochi National Park (8), pp.23–24, {{ISBN|978-5-87317-984-8}}, KMK Scientific Press</ref> Apparently, Caucasian bison was generally smaller (there had been arguments regarding the Caucasian bison to be smaller than the lowland bison, but most certainly less weighed), had shorter but higher hooves, had more developed [[Biology:Shoulder girdle|shoulder girdle]]s, had skulls similar in size to those found in Kuban region, had significantly thicker and larger horns, less shaggy coats, and curly hairs on head rear.<ref name=WWFRussia/><ref>Ninell Melkadze, Nargiza Ninua, Izabella Skhirtladze (2009): Catalogue of the type specimens of Caucasian large mammalian fauna in the collection of the National Museum of Georgia</ref><ref>Daniel Foidl, 2013, Over-purity as a danger for the Wisent?, The Breeding-back blog, Tauros Programme</ref>

It was hunted by the [[Biology:Caspian tiger|Caspian tiger]] and the [[Biology:Asiatic lion|Asiatic lion]] in the [[Earth:Caucasus|Caucasus]], as well as other predators such as wolves and bears.

==Extinction and conservation==
[[File:Bison bonasus caucasicus.jpg|thumb|right|Taxidermied specimen, Museum of the Zoological Institute, Russia]]

In the 17th century, the Caucasian bison still populated a large area of the Western Caucasus. After that human settlement in the mountains intensified and the range of the Caucasian wisent became reduced to about one tenth of its original range at the end of the 19th century. In the 1860s the population still numbered about 2,000, but was reduced to only 500–600 in 1917 and to only 50 in 1921.<ref name="Lidia">{{cite journal |first1=Lidia V. |last1=Zablotskaya |first2=Mikhail A. |last2=Zablotsky |first3=Marina M. |last3=Zablotskaya |title=Origin of the Hybrids of North American and European Bison in the Caucasus Mountains |journal=Proceedings of the Second Conference of Bison Specialist Group |publisher=SSC/IUCN |location=Sochi |date=26–30 September 1988}}. Presented in Russian originally; translated into English in 1990, but never published in that form</ref> Local [[Biology:Poaching|poaching]] continued; finally, in 1927, the last three Caucasian wisent were killed.<ref name="Bashkirov">{{cite journal |last=Bashkirov |first=I. S. |year=1939 |title=Caucasian European Bison |publisher=Central Board for Reserves, Forest Parks and Zoological Gardens, Council of the People’s Commissars of the RSFSR |pages=1–72 |location=Moscow}} [In Russian.]</ref>

[[File:Żubr Bison bonasus.jpg|thumb|left|A hybrid in Poznań Zoo]]
Only one Caucasian bison bull is known to have been kept in captivity. This bull, named Kaukasus, was born in the Caucasus Mountains in 1907 and brought to Germany in 1908 where he lived until 26 February 1925. While in captivity, he bred with cows from the lowland subspecies ''Bison bonasus bonasus''.<ref name="Puzek">{{cite book |last=Puzek |first=Z.|year=2002 |title=European Bison ''Bison bonasus'': Current State of the Species and an Action Plan for Its Conservation |publisher=Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences |location=Bialowieza|display-authors=0}}</ref> Thus, he became one of the twelve ancestors of the present lowland-Caucasian breeding line of the European wisent pedigree book.<ref name="Puzek" />

In 1940, a group of wisent-[[Biology:American bison|American bison]] hybrids were released into the Caucasian Biosphere Reserve and later in 1959 in the Nalchik Forestry Game Management Unit (Kabardino-Balkariya). Later some pure-blood wisent of the lowland-Caucasian breeding line were released there to form a single mixed herd together with the hybrids.<ref name="Lidia"/> In 2000, these hybrids were described as a different (without scientific basis) subspecies, the highland bison - ''Bison bonasus montanus'' (Polish).<ref name="Rautian">{{cite journal |last1=Rautian |first1=G. S. |last2=Kalabushkin |first2=B. A. |last3=Nemtsev |first3=A. S. |year=2000 |title=A New subspecies of the European Bison, ''Bison bonasus montanus'' ssp. nov.  |journal=Doklady Biological Sciences |volume=375 |issue=4 |pages=563–567|doi=10.1023/A:1026658309135 |pmid=11211514 |s2cid=1144374 }}</ref>

==See also==
*List of extinct animals of Europe
*[[Biology:Carpathian wisent|Carpathian wisent]]
*Caucasian moose

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20150711184244/http://www.petermaas.nl/extinct/speciesinfo/caucasianbison.htm The Extinction Website - Caucasian European Bison - Bison bonasus caucasicus].
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20161226095419/http://www.ultimateungulate.com/artiodactyla/bison_bonasus.html European bison / Wisent]
*[http://mountaindreams.ru/2013/03/kavkazskij-zubr-stranicy-istorii/ History of the Caucasian European Bison] (In Russian)

{{Taxonbar|from=Q2528872}}

[[Category:Bison]]
[[Category:Species made extinct by human activities]]

{{Sourceattribution|Caucasian wisent}}