Gentlemen

The Hunting Consortium reports that wisent hunting in Poland will close after 2016.

Does anyone know what this situation is about? Very concerning that hunters were instrumental in getting the species back on its feet and now they are going to close it down.

Link here

Hunting Consortium Newsletter

Well,

I the species is endangered, (as stated in your link) does it not make sense to stop killing 'em?

Its undoubtedly political in origin - and probably related to Poland's current presidency of the EU.

I'm surprised that the game management authorities allowed this to go through because management processes in Poland appear to be sound and robust.

I'd also question whether the species is actually "endangered" - its much more likely (as is sadly frequently the case) that the habitat available for them is not there any more due to expanding human populations. We have a small herd in captivity close to me here in Scotland and whilst they seem to do OK you would need a lot of space to let such animals roam free in a European setting.

if the reason for closure was because they are truly endangered, then why wait until AFTER the 2016 season. sounds political as Ian said....

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
if the reason for closure was because they are truly endangered, then why wait until AFTER the 2016 season. sounds political as Ian said....

The species was thought to be extinct until farmers and hunters saved them and got them back on their feet. With the species growing in numbers how the hell is banning hunting going to further protect them?

This political BS called antihunting is slowly creeping its way to Eastern Europe

To be honest I'd doubt (but can't be certain) that this is due to anti-hunting sentiment in Eastern Europe - this doesn't really compute in either Eastern Europe or Scandinavia, at least to be same extent as farther west.

I'd say it's much more likely that Poland has been subject to political pressure in an EU context in Brussels from German, Dutch or other pressure groups (The "Green" party's MEPs).

It would be good though to have some Brussels-eye-view of this from those in the know - it will need someone with more time on their hands than me to find this out.

This has been going on for years and years.
The Wisent is endangered, of course.
It is however not endangered in the very limited areas where it is in Poland.
In fact the areas have too many. They used to have big problems with diseases and officials had to shoot quite a few.
The quota they had for old cows and bulls has been very reasonable and brought good money for the parks.

The reason not to hunt them there must be political, most likely political pressure from EU.
Let's wait and see what happens

Kuwinda, sounds like anti hunting sentiment on highest level. Nothing more nothing less

There has not been real wiscent hunting in Poland for long long time. The species were nearly extinct after the WW2 and the numbers slowly build up so they could be moved around the country and they are now quite numerous in a number of places, but they never officially came back on a list of legal quarry unlike moose for example.
Any wiscent shooting is management hunts carried out by the state forestry company. The animals are not really wild and not entirely afraid of humans, but each to their own...