European WILDLIFE

A wolf made appearance in Belgium after more than one hundred years of absence. His visit to the countryside located around Gedinne in Namur, province of Wallonia, was recorded and shown on VRT TV channel.

The Wolf’s presence was proved after several killed sheep had been discovered over the course of the summer period. Such findings, uncommon in this area, stirred the attention of animal television programme makers “Dieren in nest”, and Flemish TV decided …

The number of Caucasian Wisents increased by 10 per cent last year. According to DPA agency, there are now 540 wild-living wisents populating the Western Caucasus while ten years ago there were only 220 of them.

The last wild Caucasian wisents were killed by poachers in 1927. At that time there were merely 48 captive species left. In order to save this Caucasian subspecies, they had to be cross-bred with their relative – American Bison.…

The ice covered area in the Arctic is the smallest since the use of climate-monitoring satellites in 1972. According to experts from the Bremen university, the diminishing of ice around the North Pole is not just a consequence but also a motor of global warming.

The Arctic ice coverage in the first half of September was 4.24 milions square kilometers which is the new historical minimum. Experts believe that the ice now covers about half …

Bulgaria is planning to release a group of Koniks into the region of the Rhodope mountains located in the southeast of the country. Last century, Koniks that emerged from a primitive domestic horse were bred in Poland in attemp to create a substitute for an extinct wild horse – Tarpan.

A joint Dutch-Bulgarian project named New Thracian Gold is financed mainly by Dutch fooundations and organizations, including ARK Foundation and Avalon, which provide 12 Koniks. …

Przewalski´s horses that reside in European zoological gardens should head towards Russian steppes. That is the plan of Russian experts. The first lot of 30 horses coming from Czech or German zoos should be sent off in 2012 or 2013.

Project that aims to save and recreate steppe ecosystems in Russia should be realised under the patronage of United Nations. The first phase is estimated to cost 5.3 million dollars. The horses are intended to …