Hybrids Between the European Bison and Domestic Cattle
The crossing of such species belonging to the same genus as the European and American bison poses no difficulty, and the existence of these hybrids in fact represented a major problem in the first years of restitution of the European bison, since the puri
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Hybrids Between the European Bison and Domestic Cattle
The crossing of such species belonging to the same genus as the European and American bison poses no difficulty, and the existence of these hybrids in fact represented a major problem in the first years of restitution of the European bison, since the purity of Bison bonasus (L.) came under threat. In contrast, the obtainment of hybrids between genera, e.g. Bison and Bos (the genus including domestic cattle) is more problematical. It is worth recalling that domestic cattle were grazed in the Białowieża Forest for many years at the same time as bison were present there, yet no births of hybrids in natural conditions were noted. However, man-made hybrids of American bison and cattle have long been known in North America, under the name “cattalo”. Indeed, uncontrolled formation of hybrids may threaten the purity of the species: when investigated, the herd of “buffalo” in Custer State Park was found to contain sequences of mtDNA originating from cattle (Polziehn et al. 1995), a fact supporting the supposition that the founders of the population included back crosses indistinguishable from American bison in their outward appearance. The first attempts at crossing European bison with cattle were pursued by Leopold Walicki at his estate near Grodno, in the years 1847–1859. Walicki’s aim was to breed up strong working cattle (Karcov 1903). In turn, the experiments done in the years 1958–1976 at Białowiez˙a, by the Mammal Research Institute PAS, had as their theoretical goal the tracing of the mechanisms of inheritance, the determination of hybrids’ fertility and the practical utilisation of heterosis, i.e. hybrid vigour. First-generation (F1) hybrids outclass their progenitors (bison and cattle) in both body mass and size. The largest F1 males achieved body masses of 1,030 kg, cf. 880 kg for females (Krasin´ska 1988). A total of 71 hybrids were ultimately obtained at Białowiez˙a, 11 of these being first-generation. The father of all the hybrids was the bull M 1077 POKORNY (Fig. 24.1), while female F 1073 PONĘTNA gave birth to the world’s first hybrid, sired by a bull named Filon (Dehnel 1961) (Fig. 24.2). The bison–cattle hybrids had no special name, but after various proposals had been considered it was the Polish name “z˙ubron´” that was decided upon. The raising of hybrids for commercial purposes in fact continued
M. Krasin´ska and Z. A. Krasin´ski, European Bison, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-36555-3_24, © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
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24 Hybrids Between the European Bison and Domestic Cattle
Fig. 24.1 The bull M 1077 POKORNY was the father of all the specimens of the hybrids (bison–cattle) obtained in the course of experimentation at the Mammal Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Białowiez˙a in the years 1958–1976. Photo ZA Krasin´ski
Fig. 24.2 Filon was the world’s first hybrid born to a bison female at Białowiez˙a in 1960. Photo Z. Pucek
24 Hybrids Between the European Bison and Domestic Cattle
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Fig. 24.3 The fir
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