The changes of founders’ number and their contribution to the European bison population during 80 years of species’ restitution

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to clarify the genetic structure of European bison Bison bonasus after species bottleneck. When in 1924 the restitution process has been started there were only 54 individuals (29 males and 25 females) with proven genetic purity. The pedigree of this group was analyzed and it was stated that 28 animals with unknown parents can be counted as species founders. This large group of founders can be divided into two parts; one consisted of 17 individuals carefully diagnosed by Slatis (1960) and 11 others not represented in current European bison population. The contribution of those lost ancestors at the beginning of restitution was equal to 26,9%. Large part of those losses was due to termination of European
bison breeding at Woburn of unknown reason. The analysis explained also tremendous changes in founder’s contribution since the beginning of E. bison restitution.