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In 2016, ancient cave paintings of giant, horned beasts shed new light on the mysterious origins of the European bison.
These depictions showed a marked change in bison appearance between about 22,000 and 17,000 years ago – horns, humps and forequarters all diminished in size. This added weight to the genetic evidence suggesting that the European bison arose from cross-breeding of the now-extinct steppe bison with aurochs (an ancestor of modern cattle) around this time.
The resulting European bison hybrid – also called the wisent – is the continent’s largest living land animal.
They once roamed across much of Europe and western Asia; however, consistent hunting and habitat loss over the last few centuries collapsed the population. The last wild individual was shot in the Caucasus in 1927, leaving just 54 alive in zoos and private parks.
Since then, breeding programs and reintroductions across Europe have helped the bison bounce back. The IUCN classified the species as endangered in 1996 but, in response to the impressive population recovery, updated their status to near threatened in 2020. Today, there are around 7,000 free-roaming individuals.
