A herd stop: Train kills 3 rare bison in Poland | National

The “Zubr” line train, which takes its name from the Polish word for bison, did not derail and was able to resume its journey around an hour and a half after the collision. 

Some 1,200 bison, an emblematic animal in the eastern European country, currently inhabit the Polish part of the great Bialowieza Forest, considered the last primeval woodland in Europe.

The forest, which is divided by the Poland-Belarus border, is a treasure of biodiversity and a giant carbon sink.

Yet several bison fall victim to road accidents in the region every year. 

“They are sometimes hit by trains, but these are usually isolated incidents,” Professor Rafal Kowalczyk, from a local branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences, told AFP.

“I don’t recall an accident where three bison were killed at the same time, run over by a train,” the specialist in the giant mammals added.

Devastated by hunting, deforestation and the expansion of agriculture, the European bison nearly became extinct at the beginning of the 20th century. 

After disappearing from Bialowieza, its last habitat in Europe, before the outbreak of World War II, the species was saved at the 11th hour thanks to the release of bison reared in zoos back into the wild.