The Zoobotánico de Jerez (Cádiz) has welcomed, on August 3, the birth of a European bison calf that develops normally and can already be observed in its installation in the park.
In fact, the calf breastfeeds from the first moment and its mother shows very good maternal behavior, as reported by the Jerez City Council in a statement.
Likewise, they have pointed out that their parents are a female born in 2007, at the Santillana zoo and, their father a male born, in 2018, and from Zoodyseé in France. He is the first birth of this couple.
Indiscriminate hunting was what brought the species to the brink of extinction. Today and thanks to the work of zoos, they live freely in the Bialowieza Forest (Poland). The Zoo has been involved in the EEP*s project (Reproduction Projects for Threatened Species) of the European bison since 1996, having registered to date the birth of eleven specimens in the park in Jerez.
It is currently the largest ruminant in Europe. The withers of the animal are very high as a result of the prolongation of the dorsal vertebrae. The head is usually low. The horns, not too large, are arched upwards. The coat is thicker and more frizzy in the area of the head and in the front part of the body.
A small beard has developed on the throat. The crown hairs are long and fall towards the front of the head. The tail with long fur. The color of the coat is dull chestnut, turning to dark on both sides of the head and appearing reddish or yellowish brown tones on the crown and shoulder blades. It differs from the American bison by being thinner and having higher legs, a less sloping dorsal line, and the absence of long hairs on the legs.
