By Kathy Lally, Washington Post. Article relevant to Losing
Biodiversity chapter 2. Excerpt: ARKHYZ, Russia — Four startled bison
backed out of their traveling crates here, looked around suspiciously
for a moment, then strolled contentedly across the field. Finally, they
were home, home on the range where they had been declared nearly
extinct. The big and shaggy 2-year-olds, who look much like the American
buffalo, had been driven 1,000 miles from a nature reserve in the
Moscow region to southwest Russia, where the European bison had roamed
for centuries in the woodlands of the North Caucasus mountains.They had
been raised by the World Wildlife Fund, known as WWF in Russia, and
brought here on a rainy day in October in yet another attempt by man to
undo damage he has done to the world around him. The European bison
disappeared here in 1927, was brought back in the 1970s, then killed off
again in the 1990s when the people of this region, called the Republic
of Karachay-Cherkessia, were thrown into poverty after the collapse of
the Soviet Union. This bison meat is no gift to the palate. But people
were hungry. Only 13 bison remained here in the Teberdinsky Nature
Reserve, said Igor Chestin, director of WWF Russia. At that number, the
bison will not breed, he said. But the four just released, and another
four brought here in September, are expected to provide enough choice of
mates to get some serious courting underway. Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/wwf-brings-russian-bison-back/2012/10/21/43c40a2e-149a-11e2-ba83-a7a396e6b2a7_story.html |
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