Pless line

A breeding line in the preservation breeding of the bison, which is threatened with extinction, is called the Pleß line . This line is a subline of the so-called flatland line . All bison in this line are pure-blooded representatives of the subspecies Bison bonasus bonasus , which can be traced back to three cows and a bull from the Białowieża jungle. This came in 1865 as a present for Hans Heinrich XI. von Hochberg , the princes of Pless , from the primeval forest of Białowieża to the Pless forests. These are located in the Beskid foreland in the Upper Silesia region in the Plesse ( Pszczynka ) lowland , a tributary of the Vistula .

The bisons in the Pless forests were bred here in isolation for several decades. In the conservation breeding of the bison, which was concentrated in the 1920s and 1930s, it was still possible to fall back on a few descendants of these four animals. The bull Plisch with the stud book number 229, which was brought back to Białowieża from Pleß in 1936, is of great importance in today's conservation breeding. Almost all of the bison of the lowland line currently living in the wild in the Białowieża National Park descend from him .

literature

• Małgorzata Krasińska and Zbigniew Krasiński : The Wisent , The New Brehm Library Volume 74, Westarp Sciences, Hohenwarsleben 2008, ISBN 978-3-89432-481-0 .