European Bison and the EU

This is an interesting article about a man in Poland who is trying to train European bisons to change their migration patterns. From the article:

To keep the animals from extinction, Mr. Niedzialkowski, coordinator of the European Bison Program, is trying to change the migration patterns of about 400 lowland bison (Bison bonasus bonasus) roaming the primeval forest in northeastern Poland. He wants to persuade Polish bison to breed with other wild herds of the same species in neighboring Lithuania and Slovakia.

Poland has had to tighten border controls with non-EU countries like the Ukraine and Belarus. This keeps the bison populations from mixing as well. So they have to spend millions of dollars to alter their behavior so they will mix with EU bison in order to keep a healthy gene pool.