Białowieża National Park

Białowieża National Park
Park Pałacowy 11
17-230 Białowieża

Phone +48 85 682 97 00
e-mail: bpn@bpn.com.pl


Tourist Information
Phone +48 85 681 29 01
e-mail: info@bpn.com.pl

Księga Rodowodowa Żubrów - The European Bison Pedigree Book is a specific undertaking sustaining the programme for the protection of the European bison, as the largest mammal existing in Europe today. The Book's origins are in the 1930s, when work within an international framework began on the restitution of a species that was already extinct in the wild state, having been eradicated from its last strongholds in the early part of the 20th European Bison Pedigree Book issues edited after the II-nd World War in the electronic version to download century.

The European Bison Pedigree Book issues edited after the II-nd World War in the electronic version to download history of the European bison in Europe is well-known and described in many accessible sources (articles and monographs), as well as on the website of Białowieża National Park. Here we therefore confine ourselves to that part of the reinstatement work of most direct relevance to the Pedigree Book.

The European Bison Pedigree Book issues edited after the II-nd World War in the electronic version to download first task anticipating the use of the remaining bison present in private collections and zoos in the reinstatement of the species was - clearly enough - the carrying out of a census of all the surviving animals. The census of this kind was carried out painstakingly in 1931, by Goerd von der Groeben, as a Member of the International Society for the Protection of the European Bison that had first been established in Germany in 1923, under the title Internationale Gesellschaft zur Erhaltung des Wisents. De facto the listing encompassed only pure-blood animals, with rigorous exclusion of specimens that were hybrids generated at the whim of breeders - between the European and American bison species, or else between European bison and domestic cattle. All the animals capable of being verified in this way present anywhere in the world (though in practice almost solely in Europe) were included. The census was thus the starting point for all the activity - continuing through to the present day - in regard to the restitution of this endangered species, with steady work to increase the size of the world herd through supervised matings, and hence with preservation of the pure-blood European bison as a species. It is worth emphasising that the Pedigree Book was the precursor of the system of registration of pure-blooded individuals serving the restitution effort and coming to represent a model solution in a large number of programmes now operating to protect and boost populations of other endangered species.

Also European Bison Pedigree Book issues edited after the II-nd World War in the electronic version to download from the outset, a clear distinction was drawn among the pure-blood bison between animals representing one or other of the two recognised breeding lines, i.e. the Białowieża (or Lowland) Line including animals descending from the herd of European bison lingering on longest in the world in the Białowieża Forest in Poland, or else the Białowieża-Caucasian Line, which - as the name suggests - includes animals with heritage from the Białowieża Line, but also from the population that persisted in the Caucasus Mountains. The latter animals were assigned full-subspecies status, and were also exterminated, leaving just a single individual, which was present among animals of Białowieża origin at a breeding centre in Germany - hence the inevitable mixing of the two lines. Nevertheless, given the genetic distinctiveness, the two lines have been distinguished consistently in all the counts made for the purposes of the Pedigree Book.

To European Bison Pedigree Book issues edited after the II-nd World War in the electronic version to download better acquaint the reader with the issues most relevant to the activity of the European Bison Pedigree Book (EBPB), we present below the main aims being pursued by this publication's Editorial Office, in the name and interests of breeders of European bison worldwide.

Engagement in the precise, ongoing pedigree registration of individual animals identified by their breeders (at captive breeding centres), thanks to conferment of pedigree numbers upon them by the Editorial Office for EBPB. Specifically, pedigree identification encompasses: gender, number, name (established with identifying first letters reserved for most of the world's breeding centres) and data establishing the identity of a given animal's father and mother). Tables in the Book also categorise and list breeders, i.e. owners of bison in whose care the mating of the given parents took place. Thanks to the maintenance of continuity since the time of the first census, this system allows for the recreation of the "family tree" of each specimen subject to individual-level registration, whose fate is known from birth through to death, or else to the time of release into a free-ranging herd. The different animals present in each edition of the EBPB are arranged by pedigree number in table form. For practical purposes, the tables are organised by the different owners of bison, as further ordered by country and breeding centre. Bison included are those alive in the course of the year covered by the given edition of the Pedigree Book. The text is also produced in parallel in Polish and English.
Engagement in the ongoing registration of all bison living anywhere in the world, in both captive circumstances, in which animals are mated together by the breeder (and there is therefore pedigree registration), and in free-ranging or semi-wild herds, in which breeding takes place freely (and there is therefore registration of numbers of animals only). Taken together, these two kinds of registration allow for a determination of numbers of European bison living in the world at the end of each year, with a division into those in captivity, free-ranging or in semi-wild conditions. At present, the Editorial Office compiling the Pedigree Book operates on the principle of new editions being published each year, and also posted on the part of the Białowieża National Park website devoted to the EBPB.
The possibility of using the EBPB system to track the fates of individual animals from the moment of birth and the conferment of a Pedigree Number through to the time of death, with particular attention being paid to changes of ownership (and/or places at which animals are kept) through the entire life.
The provisioning of data on the world's European bison to all breeders, by way of the publication of successive editions of the EBPB, with distribution of consecutive editions free of charge to all.
The running of an electronic database with full information on all the world's breeding centres for European bison from the time the first census was carried out through to the present day. The base operates by reference to information submitted by the different breeders in annual reports (on paper and digitally), and it concerns all the animals held in captivity where owners exercise supervision over individuals' genealogies.
The maintaining of an archive of materials associated with the history and ongoing activity of the Pedigree Book, including both editions of the EBPB published, and other publications, notes and iconographic materials that represent the legacy of activity during the Book's first period in existence, when it still operated within the context of the Internationale Gesellschaft zur Erhaltung des Wisents. The materials may be made available to those interested for research purposes, or for registration - in electronic form. The EBPB Editorial Office is striving to broaden the range of scanned archival materials, as and when new funding earmarked for this purpose becomes available.
Operations at the Editorial Office of the EBPB are founded upon regular contacts and close cooperation with all breeders and owners of European bison around the world. It is thanks to this that there is an ongoing flow of information on particular animals, and that it is possible to compile annual reports on numbers of individuals in captivity or free-ranging at the end of each year. Recently, the information functions of the Pedigree Book have expanded to include advice as to desirable sales of specimens, or exchanges between different breeding centres around the world. This task is assuming greater importance as the years go by and there is progress with the breeding of bison, to the point where pressure of numbers at given captive-breeding centres of limited area necessitates transfers elsewhere.

Since 1991, the Editorial Office for the European Bison Pedigree Book has come within the structures of the Białowieża National Park. It is therefore on the website of the BNP that already-published editions of the EBPB are to be found, along with selected articles on the story of the species' restitution, and on the Pedigree Book from the time it was first established through to the present day.

Presented below are the annually-revised statistical data providing quantitative information on numbers of bison in Poland and worldwide. The data detail numbers of bison around the world, as determined in the most recent edition of the EBPB, as well as the status of the species in Poland at the end of the year that has just passed, as typically updated in the first quarter of a given year.

Selected statistical data on current numbers of European bison 
worldwide and in Poland

(as of December 31st in the given year)


Numbers of European bison worldwide at the end of 2023:

                                                           Total: 11 180 individuals

                                                           including:

                                                           in captivity: 1710 (656.1054)*

                                                           semi-free livings: 658

                                                           free-livings: 8812



Numbers of European bison in Poland at the end of 2023:

                                                           Total: 2820 individuals

                                                           including:

                                                           in captivity: 194 (64.130)

                                                           free-livings: 2626


Numbers of European bison at Białowieża at the end of 2023:

                                                           In BNP breeding enclosures

                                                           (the Breeding and Show Reserves): 22 (5.17)

                                                           free-livings
                                                           in the Polish part of the Białowieża Forest: 892

 

 
* In brackets, separated by dots, are presented: numbers of males, number of females.

Compiled by: 

Editor for EBPB 
Dr. Jan Raczyński                                                                                            
Assistant Editor for EBPB
Małgorzata Bołbot, M. Sc. Eng.