Polish-Spanish calf and shared joy
In July, on our website we published a report of transport of European bison of Polish origin to the breeding center in San Cebrian de Muda located in the Cantabrian Mountains in Spain. It was five cows from Białowieża and 2 bulls from Pszczyna reserve. Not much time has passed and now Polish herd in Spain has expanded by one calf. It is now only few days old and we are not sure yet what sex is (probably a heifer). What we know for sure is that it is healthy and caused a lot of joy to all. Spanish breeders would like to call it Citra, but unfortunately it was conceived in Bialowieza and formally it is a Bialowiezan calf, so should has the name starting with PO.
Naming a new bison depends not only on the imagination of breeders, but is subject to certain strict rules: the mother from a closed reserve in Bialowieza assigned names beginning with the letters PO, but from a free-roaming herd have names starting with KA. Bison transported to Spain were: Pomyłka, Podesta, Polecona, Kastorama and Karagana. Due to the age of the females, it seems most likely, that the calf is a daughter of Podesta or Pomyłka, and therefore we need to seek a new name starting with PO. Official figures have not yet reached the Polish specialists in European Bison Pedigree Book, but surely soon will be here.
The Chair of the European Bison Friends Society, prof. Wanda Olech draws attention to an interesting coincidence - In Poland, significantly more males of European bison are being born, and if you send away a cow from Bialowieza, it will give birth to heifers - this was the Kransavlak (Netherlands) - four heifers from four cows, now another case.
Certainly we will stay in touch with this herd which apparently well acclimated on the Iberian Peninsula.
Text: Elżbieta Strucka