European bison

The European bison (Bison bonasus), also known as wisent (/ˈviːzənt/ or /ˈwiːzənt/) or the European wood bison, is a Eurasian species of bison. It is one of two extant species of bison, alongside the American bison. Three subspecies have existed in the past, but only one survives today.

European bison were hunted to extinction in the wild in the early 20th century, with the last wild animals of the B. b. bonasus species being shot in the Białowieża Forest (on the Poland-Belarus border) in 1921, and the B. b. caucasus in the northwestern Caucasus in 1927.(B. b. hungarorum was hunted to extinction in the mid 1800s.) They have since been reintroduced from captivity into several countries in Europe, all descendants of the Białowieża or lowland European bison. They are now forest-dwelling. They have few predators (besides humans), with only scattered reports from the 19th century of wolf and bear predation. European bison were first scientifically described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Some later descriptions treat the European bison as conspecific with the American bison. It is not to be confused with the aurochs, the extinct ancestor of domestic cattle.