The largest living land mammal in Europe almost became extinct a hundred years ago, but is back. The wisent is also called the European bison and lived in the wild in large parts of Europe two thousand years ago. Including in the Netherlands. Until the beginning of the last century. Since then, efforts have been made to bring back the wisent. Successfully! The world population now numbers around 5,500 wisents, of which around 3,500 live in the wild. A number of them currently live in De Maashorst. Follow your primal instinct and spot them!
slender and tough
You can recognize the wisent by its slender build, hump, short horns and thick chestnut brown coat. Because of that slender build and short horns they can effortlessly slalom between the trees. Handy, because that is where they find the tastiest grasses, herbs, buds, leaves and bark. Wisents are real ruminants. They peel more trees and bushes than any other European herbivore.
What do you do when you encounter a grazer?
To protect the large grazers and yourself, we would like to ask you to observe a number of visiting rules when visiting the grazing area.
the large grazers
De Maashorst is full of special nature