Student project on wisent

From July until December 2011 an internship project on the wisent is being carried out at LHNet by Yannick Exalto. Yannick is studying Wildlife Management (BSc) at the University of Applied Sciences Van Hall Larenstein, the Netherlands. The title of his project is: Current status of the European bison (Bison bonasus) and future prospects in pan-Europe. He is being assisted by Hanna Weber, an orientation student from the University of Technology in Munich, Germany, who is studying landscape planning.

The intention of the project is to write a student report including updated information about the wisent, partially based on the information contained in: European bison, current state of the species and strategy for its conservation by Pucek et al., published in 2004.

Yannick: “With this project I want to investigate progress and changes the wisent has experienced since 2004, including its future threats, challenges and possibilities. In order to carry out my internship project I created a questionnaire to collect information, opinions and thoughts from different wisent experts on several wisent-related topics such as: breeding centres, threats, genetics, conservation strategy and future possibilities. The wisent expert questionnaire has already been sent to 55 wisent experts spread throughout pan-Europe. I expect to identify and select conservation strategies that can improve the status of the wisent in the pan-European region during the next decades and to present an accurate description of possible problems, challenges and solutions for the long-term future of the wisent in pan-Europe. Also I want to compare the outcome of my 2011 report with the 2004 report by Pucek et al.” The report will be finalized in December 2011.

For more detailed information go to the webpage. If you have questions or if you did not receive the questionnaire but think you should have, please contact us.