Abstract
Abstract European bison (Bison bonasus) were successfully reintroduced in many free or semi-free areas across Europe during the last decades. Due to the increased numbers, the conflicts between human activities and bison are more frequent. Therefore the knowledge about spatial activity and habitat preference in new regions is the need for management decision making. We studied daily and seasonal habitat use of the semi-free European bison herd in the Czech Republic from 2014 to 2019. The lead cows of the herd were collared with the GPS devices with a 30-minutes GPS fixes interval. The bison herd strongly preferred the managed open areas and supplementary feeding stations during the seasons (Jacob´s index from 0.49 to 0.99). On the contrary, they avoided the forest type and unmanaged open habitats (Jacob´s index from −0.23 to −0.69). The managed meadows and feeding places they used almost exclusively during the night while the forest during the day-light.
Highlights
The European bison is the largest wild ungulate on the European continent (Ramos et al 2016)
The reason may be that the European bison is an example of a species that has been forced to move into the forest due to a combination of overgrowth of open areas after the last postglacial period and increasing human pressure on it (Cromssigt et al 2012; Kerley et al 2012)
We decided to evaluate the habitat preferences of European bison herds bred in semi-wild breeding in the Czech Republic
Summary
The European bison is the largest wild ungulate on the European continent (Ramos et al 2016). The reason may be that the European bison is an example of a species that has been forced to move into the forest due to a combination of overgrowth of open areas after the last postglacial period and increasing human pressure on it (Cromssigt et al 2012; Kerley et al 2012) Based on these assumptions and the fact that the European bison needs a large amount of herbaceous vegetation each day, in recent years the bison has been very often introduced to places where it should serve as one of the species naturally farming open grassy and bushy succession habitats.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
