Correspondence

• Main Authors: A. Mysterud, K. A. Bartoń, Z. A. Krasiński, M. Niedziałkowska, J. F. Kamler, N. G. Yoccoz, N. C. Stenseth, Atle Mysterud, Centre For Ecological
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2006
• Subjects: density dependence; mortality; North Atlantic Oscillation; reproduction; vital rates; winter weather severity; North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.519.9034; http://folk.uio.no/atlemy/pdf/art82.pdf

doi:10.1111/j.1469-1795.2006.00075.x The European bison Bison bonasus is an example of nearly extinct ‘charismatic megafauna’. The Białowiez’a Primeval Forest in Poland is among the few places where they still live in the wild. The management of this free-living herd has to reconcile to the conservation needs of a species and the economic and environ-mental objectives of their habitat: protected as well as commercial woodlands of Białowiez’a. Here we present a detailed account of the population development and analyse variation in vital rates based on monitoring that started in 1952 and continued until 2002. The population was allowed to grow freely until 1970, when removal started with the aim to stabilize population size. We found that recruit-ment rate, but not mortality, was density dependent, suggesting that the popula-tion density was not very high relative to resource levels. Winters with much snow and cold temperature had a strong negative effect on survival. May temperature of the previous year positively affected recruitment rates. Masting (oak seed) also