Various reasons have led to a decrease and even extinction of certain species of animals and plants. To suspend this process, mankind came up with the Red Book. This is a kind of list of endangered birds, animals, insects, etc. Take, for example, an animal such as the bison. The Red Book of Russia classifies it as an “endangered species”.
Red Book History
In 1948, the International Union
for Conservation of Nature, abbreviated as IUCN, led the work on nature conservation of various organizations operating in most countries of the world. Soon, a Species Survival Commission was established. The purpose of this commission was to create a world list of animals that are threatened with extinction.
The work was great. It was necessary not only to develop general principles for the protection of rare animals, but also to identify endangered species, compile their classification and much more. When the work was done, they decided to call the book red due to the fact that this color signals danger.
The Red Book was first published in 1963 and included a description of 312 species and subspecies of birds and 211 species and subspecies of mammals. Each subsequent publication expanded the list of endangered birds and animals. In this list there is also a bison. The IUCN Red Book, however, classifies it as vulnerable rather than endangered.
The Red Book of Russia
The Red Book of the Russian Federation was published in 2001. Although the Red Book of the RSFSR was taken as the basis , it was a new, thoroughly revised and supplemented publication. It included amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals - 231 taxa. This is 73 percent more than in the previous book. The list of invertebrates, fish and fish-like species has grown significantly. Some species, after careful processing, on the contrary, were excluded from the list.
However, such an animal as the European bison, the Red Book of the Russian Federation contains in its list. Moreover, the bison is classified as “endangered”.
The largest mammal in Europe
Heavier and larger than a land mammal in Europe does not exist. The bison is very close to its American relative - the bison.
The bison can reach 1 ton in weight, 330 cm in body length, and two meters in height. Its coat has a dark brown color.
From the bison it is distinguished by a higher hump, longer horns and tail.
The life expectancy of a bison is 23-25 years. It reaches its maximum size already at the age of 5-6.
Bison prefer to live in herds. But, which is characteristic, in the herd the female is leading. And it consists mainly of young calves and females. Adult males prefer loneliness. The herd is visited only for mating.
By the way, the female bison bears her cub for 9 months. Only, unlike the human baby, the cram just gets up in an hour and is ready to run after her mother. And after twenty days he can already eat fresh grass on his own. Although the female does not stop feeding the baby milk for five months.
There are two subspecies of this large animal - Bialowieza and Caucasian bison. The IUCN Red Data Book refers to the extinct species.
Bison habitat
In the Middle Ages, this animal lived on a large territory - from Western Siberia to the Iberian Peninsula. However, hunting and poaching played a role in a sharp decrease in their numbers. World War I completed this dirty business.
There is evidence that the last bison living in the wild was destroyed in Belovezhskaya Pushcha in 1921, and in the Caucasus in 1926. At that time 66 bison were kept in zoos and in private estates.
The International Society for the Conservation of Bisons, formed in 1923, was called upon to carry out work to restore the number of rare animals such as the bison. The Red Book was not yet invented. We can say that the world community has coped with this task. Today, bison are even evicted from nature zoos and live in Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, Moldova, Spain, Ukraine, Germany and Slovakia.
How to restore the bison population
Work on the restoration of the number of bison was begun before the Second World War, mainly in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, in Poland, and in zoological parks in Europe. It is clear that the war destroyed the results of this work.
To be continued after its completion. Bison rescue was again undertaken in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, but already on the territory of the Soviet Union. This work was successful, and already in 1961, bison began to be resettled in natural habitats.
By the way, if a sufficient number of bison from Bialowieza was preserved for their further reproduction, the Caucasian survived in captivity only in a single copy. Therefore, I had to start breeding hybrid animals.
Caucasian bison
In another way, it was called dombai and attributed to mountain forest animals. This subspecies of the European bison lived in the forests of the Main Caucasian Range. He was a little smaller than his European brother and darker in color. Moreover, his hair was curly, and his horns were more bent.
In terms of life expectancy, the Caucasian bison was somewhat inferior to its Bialowieza counterpart. A little more than 20 years could live the most hardy among them.
However, people tirelessly exterminated this animal. As a result, by the middle of the 19th century, no more than 2,000 individuals remained, and after the First World War - 500 pieces.
The fact of poaching, which finally exterminated the dombaev, was established. It happened in 1927 on Mount Alous. It was then that the bison of the Caucasus disappeared from the face of the earth. The IUCN Red Book classifies it as “extinct species”.
Revival of bison in the Caucasus
Of course, this was no longer a dombai. However, the bison appeared in the Caucasus again.
In the summer of 1940, a male and several female bison were brought to the Caucasian Reserve. They were crossed with Bialowieza-Caucasian bison. The latter are still preserved in some zoos in the world.
The work of scientists was successful. Now the Caucasian bison is almost no different from the native of these places of dombai. However, bison do not live in free nature. They live only in reserves: the Caucasus and Teberdinsky, as well as in the Tsei Nature Reserve in North Ossetia.
Regional Red Books
Many regions of the Russian Federation have published their own regional Red Books. This was done to give greater importance to the protection of rare species of animals, birds and plants in the regions. Of course, not all of these species are significant on a global scale. But local flora and fauna are no less important for the population living there than a separate endangered species on a global scale.
However, some species of animals from the regional Red Books are of global importance. For example, bison.
The Red Book of the Krasnodar Territory includes this animal. Because the range of bison in Russia extends to the basins of the Belaya and Malaya Laba rivers, some of which are located in the Krasnodar Territory. And now there are very few of them. But in the mid-19th century, the bison of the Kuban was not uncommon. The Red Book now warns of respect for these animals.
In addition, in Russia, the school curriculum aims not only to instill in children a love for their native land, but also to cultivate a caring attitude towards representatives of the flora and fauna. One of the most colorful among them is the bison. The red book for children in pictures demonstrates it in all its glory. This is a good example of the fact that without protection beautiful animals can disappear from the face of the earth.
Bison nurseries in Russia
The first nursery in Russia was created in 1948 in the Moscow region, in the Serpukhov district, within the boundaries of the biosphere reserve there. Since 1959, a nursery has been operating in the Spassky district of the Ryazan region. Since 1989, a free population of bison has been in the Vladimir region. In the reserve "Kaluga Zaseki" (borders of the Kaluga, Oryol and Tula regions) there are several groups of bison in the amount of 120 individuals.
In 1996, bison were also brought to the Oryol Polesie National Park, located in the north-west of the Oryol Region. Now their population has increased to 208 individuals.
However, most of the bison live in their homeland - in the Bialowieza Forest, which, as you know, is located on the territory of two states: Belarus and Poland. In the Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park of the Republic of Belarus, the number of bison is 360 individuals, and in Poland - about 400. Together they form the largest population of this rare species in the world. By the way, the symbol of Belarus is the bison. IUCN Red Book, we recall, classifies this animal as vulnerable.