ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
39 
dexterous appendage can be curved over any 
portion of his back, and the tip works precisely 
like the human forefinger in scratching any 
portion of his body. 
While Red has been with us for over fourteen 
months, he has never broken anything in the 
house. He solemnly inspects many objects, 
but makes no attempt to pick up anything unless 
it is very small, and even then he never carries 
it away. He has never knocked over a vase 
or a glass. This is remarkable in comparison 
with most species of monkeys, which if liber¬ 
ated will literally wreck the contents of a room 
in a very short time. Yet Red is not morose 
and loves to play. He delights in being rolled 
on his back, and wrestles with one’s hands amid 
an accompaniment of explosive grunts and 
growls, his ample mouth wide spread in an un¬ 
mistakable grin. 
After fourteen months of our care, Red is now 
twenty-six inches Tong (more than half grown), 
and is developing strong canine teeth. Later on 
he may become a problem, but at present we 
are determined to maintain him as a member of 
the household. Since we received him, he has 
never been entirely separated from the family. 
He has traveled thousands of miles by motor 
and Pullman cars, and lie has slumbered in 
many hotels where rules have not yet been 
formulated to bar red howlers from the premises. 
PRESENT STATUS OF THE EUROPEAN 
BISON OR WISENT 
By Theodore G. Ahrens 
In the Journal of Mammalogy, May, 1921. 
RIGINALLY there existed two types or 
species of wild oxen in Europe: The ur 
(urus), auerochs, Slavonic tur —Bos primige- 
nius; and the wisent, Polish zubr, Roumanian 
zimbr —Bos bonasus L. or Bison europaeus. 
The ur had no mane, resembled our domestic 
cattle, but had larger horns. The wisent has a 
mane, long hair on neck and shoulders, a hump, 
short horns and is a counterpart of our Ameri¬ 
can bison. The ur became extinct in Europe, 
with the exception of Russia and Poland, in 
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. 
The province of East Prussia, which belonged 
since 1511 to the Hohenzollerns, harbored a 
very considerable number of wisents. Many 
wisent hunts are mentioned in literature, and 
the animals enjoyed considerable protection. 
In 1726, 117 wisents were still counted, but in 
1755 the last animal in East Prussia was killed 
by a poacher. In Brandenburg the wisent 
existed till the eighteenth century. It was care¬ 
fully protected and in 1743 eleven were still 
accounted for. In 1768 the last Brandenburg 
wisent perished. 
Wisents lived in Austria and Hungary 
throughout the middle age^, but became extinct 
there in the sixteenth century. 
Finally the forest of Bieloviesh (Russian), 
Bealowies (German) or Bialowicza (Polish), in 
Lithuania near Grodno, and a district in the 
Caucasus Mountains are or were the only 
remaining regions in which any considerable 
numbers of indigenous wisents lived. To be 
sure, upon the estates of the Prince of Pless in 
southeastern Upper Silesia, and in Ascania Nova 
in southern Tauria (north of Crimea), belong¬ 
ing to the recently deceased F. von Falz-Fein, 
a small number were maintained, but these ani¬ 
mals had been imported and were not indigenous. 
The great forest of Bieloviesh had been a 
royal hunting preserve since the eleventh cen¬ 
tury and wisents could only be hunted there by 
special permission from the ruling dynasty. The 
Polish-Saxon kings protected the wisents and 
ceased to allow any economic use of the forest. 
After the dismemberment of Poland, the Rus¬ 
sian czars continued this policy of protection so 
that up to our own times the forest remained a 
carefully protected sanctuary. 
To give some idea of the hunts which took 
place in Bieloviesh under Polish rule, we learn 
that at one hunt, in 1744, thirty wisents were 
killed; forty-two in 1752, and at the latter 1,000 
peasants were forced to act as beaters to drive 
the game together. 
Since 1820 the czars prohibited the cutting- 
down of trees and serious efforts were made to 
protect game in general, and wisents in particu¬ 
lar. In 1860 the first imperial hunt took place. 
Two thousand peasants acted as beaters; many 
foreign princes and a great number of persons 
of all ranks were present. Twenty-eight wisents 
and much other game were killed. In 1897, 
thirty-seven wisents were killed at an imperial 
hunt; in 1900, forty-five. 
In 1828 Brincken remarks that: “a la fin de 
la derniere guerre la nombre des Bisons s’ etait 
diminue jusqu’ a se reduire a 300.” 
Nevertheless in 1826 from 700 to 800 were 
counted; in 1829, 711; in 1830, 772; but in 
1831, probably in consequence of revolutionary 
movements, 657 only. For the next fifty years 
this average must have been maintained; for in 
1884-1885, 500, and in 1891, 479, were quoted. 
Thereupon a ukase of the 3/15 February, 1892, 
gave absolute protection to the wisents for all 
time, so that at the beginning of the present 
century more than 1,200 are mentioned. In the 
