naa a22 4500 510745075 CHVBK 20180411083043.0 cr unu---uuuuu 180411e20131001xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s13364-013-0136-y doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s13364-013-0136-y Movements of European bison ( Bison bonasus ) beyond the Białowieża Forest (NE Poland): range expansion or partial migrations? [Elektronische Daten] [Rafał Kowalczyk, Małgorzata Krasińska, Tomasz Kamiński, Marcin Górny, Paweł Struś, Emilia Hofman-Kamińska, Zbigniew Krasiński] The European bison is the largest terrestrial mammal in Europe. After extinction in the wild at the beginning of the twentieth century, it was re-introduced to Białowieża Forest and other woodlands in Eastern Europe. In this paper, we analysed the movements of European bison beyond the continuous woodlands of the Białowieża Forest (NE Poland) between 1964 and 2010. In total, 1,117 direct observations of bison were collected. The number of males moving out of the forest fluctuated during the study period, whilst the number of females steadily increased. The number of male observations outside of the forest per annum was dependent on the population size and snow depth, whilst the number of cows in mixed groups moving outside of the forest was correlated with the population size only. Males were observed mainly alone (50% of observations) or in small groups of two to three individuals (25%); however, distribution of group size differed from those observed in the population. There was a significant difference between the direction of movement of males and females out of the forest—males moved mainly west and southwest, whilst females moved to the north. This was also significantly different from the expected movement direction. The mean distance of bison observations from the forest border was 1.8 ± 0.13km and did not differ significantly between sexes. After 1990, males were observed significantly farther away from the forest (2.2km) than in the previous years (0.9km). Most observations (94% of bulls and 93% of cows) were up to 5km from the forest edge. The range of bison in the vicinity of the Białowieża Forest was strictly seasonal. Most observations (78% in males and 88% in females) were recorded from November to April. Increasing utilisation of areas beyond the forest habitats may be driven by different factors but most probably it is related to range expansion and the bison's preference for open habitats. The strong seasonal pattern of bison movements indicate that the partial seasonal migrations were initiated in the Białowieża population. The Author(s), 2013 Large herbivores nationallicence Population expansion nationallicence Seasonal migrations nationallicence Refugee species concept nationallicence Snow depth nationallicence Kowalczyk Rafał Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Waszkiewicza 1, 17-230, Białowieża, Poland aut Krasińska Małgorzata Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Waszkiewicza 1, 17-230, Białowieża, Poland aut Kamiński Tomasz Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Waszkiewicza 1, 17-230, Białowieża, Poland aut Górny Marcin Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Waszkiewicza 1, 17-230, Białowieża, Poland aut Struś Paweł Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Waszkiewicza 1, 17-230, Białowieża, Poland aut Hofman-Kamińska Emilia Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Waszkiewicza 1, 17-230, Białowieża, Poland aut Krasiński Zbigniew Browska 1B, 17-230, Białowieża, Poland aut Acta Theriologica Springer Berlin Heidelberg 58/4(2013-10-01), 391-401 0001-7051 58:4<391 2013 58 13364 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-013-0136-y text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-013-0136-y text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Kowalczyk Rafał Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Waszkiewicza 1, 17-230, Białowieża, Poland aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Krasińska Małgorzata Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Waszkiewicza 1, 17-230, Białowieża, Poland aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Kamiński Tomasz Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Waszkiewicza 1, 17-230, Białowieża, Poland aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Górny Marcin Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Waszkiewicza 1, 17-230, Białowieża, Poland aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Struś Paweł Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Waszkiewicza 1, 17-230, Białowieża, Poland aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Hofman-Kamińska Emilia Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Waszkiewicza 1, 17-230, Białowieża, Poland aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Krasiński Zbigniew Browska 1B, 17-230, Białowieża, Poland aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Acta Theriologica Springer Berlin Heidelberg 58/4(2013-10-01), 391-401 0001-7051 58:4<391 2013 58 13364 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer