THE RUSSIAN BISON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18861, 8 November 1924, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE RUSSIAN BISON.

A SOVIET SANCTUARY. The Soviet Government has set asid< 200,000 acres in the Caucasus, wheii efforts will be made to preserve Europe I largest quadruped, the zubr, or European bison, according to word reaching York. This creature, now almost furnishes a romantic link with the dayl when the continent was a great d#ll forest, roamed by prehistoric tribes. The zubr was contemporary tnj mammoth and the rhinoceros. The cavi men hunted him. He furnished food i°' the wild ancestors of present-dav kuro peans when they first emerged from plains of Asia. Caesar's taffons encountered the creature in the of and Germany, and exhibited him alive the Roman amphitheatre. He was a favourite prey of the hunting parties of old Tsars." As in America, the bison could not live in contact with man. bra ually he was pushed back, until to . the only wild specimens are found in forests of the Caucasus. The Tsars made a few attempts to preserve the species, especially in Litnu» • where a park was set aside for Following the revolution it is pro that these efforts at protection wenw I nothing, and tho unfortunate crea. still further were reduced, rhe paucas bison, close cousins of tho Awi variety, feed on coarse aromatic K on the leaves, shoots, bark and twigs of The C 'Soviet also is trying' to . wild birds. Wild duck sanctuari .) bo set aside, and a "crop period established in hunting years to ono open.