Hybrid European Bison or Wisent

Mr. Moher with his 70 6/8" Hybrid Wisent Bull.

Mr. Belter with his 69 6/8" Hybrid Wisent bull.

Corey Popick of FEEL THE RUSH TV shot this Hybrid SCI Wisent for his TV show here at Silvertine. Score 69"

The European bison, also known as the Wisent, is a forest dwelling bison, and love conifer and spruce forest habitat, so they thrive in mixed type forests like we have here at Silvertine, thus making them the most challenging Bison we offer hunts for. The European Bison is not as easy to domesticate as the American bison, thus their wild instincts to hide and flee is amazing! Hunting for one particular bull can be just as challenging as any whitetail buck!

The European Bison, occurs in the Bialowieza Forest area in Poland and Belarus, and this is the only place left on earth we can hunt them in the wild, and that is presently under a very limited in quota...so it's VERY expensive! At one point the European Bison was endangered and did not live in the wild anymore due to habitat displacement (Agricultural  and Logging Practices), settlers needing to harvest the Bison to feed their families, and soldiers shooting them during WW2. The European Bison is a success story of a species that can be brought to the edge of extinction, and threw the great efforts of a few, it has been brought back for us to enjoy.  No longer on the endangered species list they estimate that the world population both wild and ranched is around 4000 plus animals.

The European bison is the largest land mammal in Europe, older mature bulls weigh up to 2000lbs and stand 6 - 6.5 feet at the shoulder. They are built much different than the American Bison because they evolved in a different environment than the American Bison, they evolved in the forest and as a browser more so than a grazer. There is only two remaining species of Bison left in the world, the Wisent or European Bison (Bison bonasus) and the American Bison (Bison bison), the Plains and Woods are sub-species of each other. The Wisent has longer legs and tail, shorter hair and their horns point more forward like domestic cattle than up like the American Bison, less sets of ribs, and are narrower in the chest. The meat tastes exactly the same as American Bison in flavor and texture.

HISTORY AND STATUS OF WISENT IN NORTH AMERICA:
Back around 2000 there were a handful of pure European Bison imported into Canada from Poland to the Winnipeg Zoo, and some imported to the San Diego Zoo. The Zoos found out that, in captivity and in nature, the European Bison reproduce very slowly, and have a high death rate of offspring, and this problem was compounded even further with such a small genetic diversity to work with. They found they were extremely athletic, and standard 5' high bison fences were not enough to contain these animals. So the animals were removed from being display animals and put on a farm. Over the years that followed (deliberate or accidental) some hybridization with plains bison happened. I acquired 25 animals from the Zoo, with six offspring born to these original registered imported animals.  I have been raising Wisent since 2015.

A very heavy culling of all hybrid females and males for meat followed over the years and breeding of only the pure animals and hybrid animals that displayed the best European Bison genetics were bred. This project hit another road block in 2020, as "to the best of my knowledge", in 2020, the last of the European bison in the USA were slaughtered, so no new pure bloodlines being possible. With only a few pure animals in my herd, and most of my herd now approaching 75% European Bison, each years calf crop is getting a better and better "look" of European Bison. That said, the vast majority of my herd is Hybrid animals, and can not be entered in the SCI Record Book. I will do my best to hold on to the last of North Americans Wisent lines....

My 75% hybrid Wisent bloodline bulls are not able to enter into the SCI Book to be fair to the serious trophy collectors. My Hybrids are prices the same as my American Bison hunts.​