Bison - 07.08.2010

Are these American bison?

Double check of the safari park guide & yes you are correct, they are American Bison

Okay, I just wasn't sure what (if any) zoos kept European bison

In the UK you can see European Bison at Howletts, Highland, Whipsnade and Port Lympne. According to good ol' Zootierliste, American Bison are at just 7 different UK zoos.

To be honest, if I hadn't checked I'd have thought American were more common than that in the UK. 10-15 years ago American Bison were much more widespread.




As a caveat to that, though, across Europe as a whole Zootierliste has 146 collections with European and 98 with American (11 of which have animals from the forest population, 'athabascae'), so it's only a UK thing for bison to be a bit unusual!

A good photo of them. It shows the group off well.

Bison are one of my favourite animals in the world so I'm really looking forward to seeing them when I visit Knowsley this year. How many are there and are they in with anything else?

Bison

In addition to zoos, there are a few private 'commercial' herds of American Bison in the UK, so the species is more abundant/secure than one might think. Same goes for domestic Water Buffalo. Both superb zoo animals in their own right, of course.

They have a large herd of over 40 bison. They are kept in a reserve with white rhinos, guanaco, ostrich, bactrian camels, eland and Forest Buffalo.

Quite correct, also it is worth while checking before you visit whether the bison are actually out with the animals mentioned above, they are often kept in a seperate field whee you view isn't too good. Best bet is to visit summer at a weekend when the grass is growing its quickest.

also in this area in summer look out for Ostrich's sitting on 'nests'.

I'll keep that in mind and make sure I ring them before visiting.

Do the bison get on OK with the other animals?