European bison in scenery

Currently, the biggest land animal inhabiting Europe. Descendant of the prehistoric, much bigger steppe bison, this ungulate used to live across most of Eurasia, from Spain to central Russia. Three subespecies managed to survive into historical times, the carpathian bison and the hungarian bison were hunted to oblivion and the wood bison was on the very edge of suffering the same fate. Breeding programs in captivity are the reason there is some populations left today.
The background picture is property of Florian Steffen.