Bison-Rewilding-Plan-2014

likely to increase chances of vulnerability to ‘alien’bovine diseases, as was visible with the bluetongueoutbreak a few years ago.Low acceptance of European bisonDue to agricultural crop and forestry damage causedby European bison (see section 3.6), the presence ofbison is not always fully accepted by local communities.For example, despite a compensationscheme, local concern over bison presence hasbeen documented in Poland (Hofman-Kaminska2012). If this occurs across Europe, this may make itmore difficult to gain acceptance for further bisonreintroduction projects, thus limiting the abilityto increase overall numbers of bison in order toimprove its conservation status.Hybridisation with cattleOver time, the release of bison has fuelled fears ofpossible hybridisation between European bisonand domestic cattle (Catanoiu 2012); a HumanDimension study in the Rothaargebirge in Germanyshowed that this was the number one fear of thelocal farmers (Decker 2006). Although there werefree-ranging European bison in Bialowieza until1919, and historical accounts from 1780 mentionthe constant presence of a great number of cattle(7,000–10,000), there were no reports of breedingbetween bison and cattle. In Lithuania, bisonrange overlaps with agricultural land, yet despitenumerous complaints about the presence of bisonmales around domestic cattle, there was only onerecord of them mating (Linas Balčiauskas, personalcommunication, 2004). A hybridisation attemptbetween the two species was carried out duringthe Communist era, in order to develop hybridsthat could resist harsh environmental conditionsand provide more meat. Both domestic bulls bredwith bison females and bison bulls with domesticfemales in enclosures, but due to lack of interestor active aggression only 14% of attempts wererecorded as mating. Approximately 30% of theseresulted in miscarriages and calving had to beassisted to a degree that offspring would not havesurvived in the wild. Therefore hybridisation in thewild between the two species is a low to non-existentthreat (Krasinska 2008).2.3.3 European conservationinitiatives relating to EuropeanbisonIn Europe, the bison is included in Appendix III(Protected Fauna Species) of the Bern Conventionon the Conservation of European Wildlife andNatural Habitats (Council of Europe 1979). TheEuropean bison is also included in Appendix II andIV of the Habitat Directive of the European Unionas a priority species. ‘The Status Survey and ConservationAction Plan: European Bison’ created by theIUCN/SSC Bison Specialist Group (Pucek et al. 2004)contains an overview of European bison conservationand sets the main direction for its conservationand management. It has been adopted by theBern Convention/Council of Europe and thereforeshould be guiding and binding for member states.However, national governments have not taken onthe responsibility and have failed to either createnational bison rewilding plans and/or implementa national strategy for bison conservation, withthe exception of Russia, Poland and Romania. Eventhough the bison is a habitat directive priorityspecies, nature reserve managers often do notengage with the rewilding/reintroducing of native,extinct species such as the European bison initiatives,for apparent fear of losing other habitatdirective target species.19