The number of Caucasian Wisents increased by ten per cent
The number of Caucasian Wisents increased by 10 per cent last year. According to DPA agency, there are now 540 wild-living wisents populating the Western Caucasus while ten years ago there were only 220 of them.
The last wild Caucasian wisents were killed by poachers in 1927. At that time there were merely 48 captive species left. In order to save this Caucasian subspecies, they had to be cross-bred with their relative – American Bison.
In fact, the pure Caucasian Wisent had been completely exterminated, and all that remained was their genes preserved in the Caucasian-Bialowieza hybrids with American Bison.
Several years of breeding aimed at saving those animals brought success and enabled wisent hybrids to return to nature. However, their little genetic diversity represents a great risk to their survival.
