First Steps into the Wild - Exploration Behavior of European Bison after the First Reintroduction in Western Europe.

ABSTRACT: Biodiversity is rapidly declining globally. One strategy to help to conserve species is to breed species in captivity and release them into suitable habitats. The way that reintroduced animals explore new habitats and/or disperse from the release site is rarely studied in detail and represents key information for the success of reintroduction projects. The European bison (Bison bonasus L. 1758) was the largest surviving herbivore of the post-glacial megafauna in Europe before it became extinct in the wild, surviving only in captivity since 1919. We investigated the exploration behavior of a herd of European bison reintroduced into the Rothaargebirge, a commercial forest in low range mountain intensively used and densely populated by humans, in the first six months after release. We focused

SUBMITTER: Schmitz P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4659542 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature