What is the difference between a bison and a bison, what is the difference? Bison and bison Features of physiological functions and development

Who is mentioned in the famous poem by Nikolai Gussovsky?

On October 23 last year, our newspaper published a large article by Georgy Korzhenevsky, local historian from Volozhin, “The Song of the Bison. What do we know about the life of Nikolai Gussovsky? In it, for the first time, based on specific facts, the opinion was expressed that the famous poet was born, grew up and saw the hunt for a formidable beast in the village of Ussovo (later merged with the village of Korolevshchina), located on the banks of the Usa River, a tributary of the Neman, in the former Lithuanian, and now Nalibokskaya Pushcha. And this statement was met with approval by scientists-specialists. It was only the proposal of the author of the article to continue to call the poem, based on its Latin name Carmen de (...) bisontis (...), "The Song of the Buffalo", that caused controversy. However, G. Korzhenevsky was not categorical here.

The assumption is confirmed

I read with great interest the article of the local historian from Volozhin. Back in the 1970s, I suggested that Gussovsky was most likely born in a certain village of Ussa in central Belarus. Now this is confirmed.

As you know, in the past bison and their relatives were found not only in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. In historical Lithuania (as the territory of the modern western part of Belarus was then called) there were many forests and forests abounding with various animals. Even great princes and kings came here to hunt. An interesting case, working on the version of G. Korzhenevsky and dating back to the middle of the 15th century, is described in the Belarusian-Lithuanian “Chronicle of Bykhovets”. The political rival of the Grand Duke and King Casimir, Prince Mikhail Sigismundovich, decided to kill him. Why did he send the princes of Volozhin (!) with an equestrian detachment to the forest, where the young king was going to hunt. However, the plot was uncovered, the princes of Volozhin were caught “between Krev and Oshmyany” and severely punished. The "Chronicle of Bykhovets" testifies, therefore, that the Lithuanian-Belarusian princes usually left Vilna to hunt not in the Bialowieza, but in the nearby forests. But I want to warn against too literal perception and interpretation of certain parts of the text of the Song of the Bison, a work of literary and artistic, and not a historical documentary source. This, by the way, concerns the hyperbolization of the size of the local bison.

The skeptics of the new interpretation may have only one seemingly serious argument: how to consider the Upper Ponemonye as the birthplace of the poet, if he writes in the poem that in his childhood he had to cross the Dnieper River on horseback in pursuit of a bison (in the original - Borysfen). In my opinion, here the poet meant the river in general. In a similar way, the author of The Tale of Igor's Campaign called the Danube the river over which Yaroslavna, being in Putivl, located on the Seim River, was going to fly like a seagull to her wounded husband Igor. It seems that Gussovsky could recall the rather full-flowing Western Berezina in the lower reaches, flowing not far from the Usa and also flowing into the Neman, and perhaps the Usa itself.

A very interesting and plausible observation by G. Korzhenevsky concerning the inscription on the engraving image of the author of the Song of the Bison, placed on the last page of her first, lifetime edition (Krakow, 1523) - TERMI–NUS. This inscription is divided into two parts. And if the first is translated as “the end” (of the work), then the second can really be considered as a kind of abbreviation, i.e. name and surname encrypted in Latin letters - Nikolai Ussovsky. Thus, the writer himself directly pointed to his origin from the Belarusian Ussa, and not from the Polish Gussov.

Vyacheslav CHEMERITSKY, Head of the Department of the History of Ancient and Modern Belarusian Literature, Yanka Kupala Literature Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Minsk.

royal giants

Some readers, and possibly researchers of the work of Nikolai Gussovsky, have questions about the origin and correct name beast, which was hunted in those distant times. Usually, translators of Nikolai Gussovsky's poem "Carmen de (...) bisontis (...)", literary critics (Polish, Lithuanian, Belarusian, Russian) understand and translate the word "bison", which is in the title of the work, as "bison". Can the described animal be called a bison? Yes, this animal is related. However bison bison strife! Nikolai Gussovsky wrote his poem about big bison, which were then called bison, and they were found only in our forests! (Nikolai Gussovsky was born in the Volozhin region, in the region of the current Nalibokskaya, and earlier Lithuanian Forest, at the headwaters of the Usa River, which originates near the village of Korolevshchina, Ivenets village council.) They differed from the current Bialowieza bison not only in size, but also in habits. The ancient animals exceeded the current ones by twice the weight, three times by the distance between the horns, and, in addition, patriarchy reigned among them, today an experienced female leads the herd of Belovezhskaya bison...

There is a lot of information about ancient bison. But the most accurate and detailed ones were left to us by Sigismund Herberstein, the Austrian ambassador to the Polish court and the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily Ivanovich. Herberstein, in his memoirs of travels in Lithuania and Russia (1517 and 1526), ​​described in detail the aurochs belonging exclusively to these areas (just at the time of Gussovsky's creation of his poem), and attached drawings of a bison and aurochs to the composition. If we compare what Herberstein said with the description of the animal in Gussovsky's poem, the conclusion suggests itself: the animal described by Nikolai Gussovsky and living in the Lithuanian Forest is directly related to the modern wild animal - bison. Thus, the connection of generations continues and the song of Nikolai Gussovsky also continues!

In 1994, the territory of Nalibokskaya Pushcha (mean - Lithuanian) was populated by Bialowieza bison. And a few years later, this population, originally brought to the north-central part of the forest, dispersed within the boundaries of the entire ancient Lithuanian Forest. Today you will meet our bison both in the western and in the southern parts of Naliboki. And in autumn and winter, bison enter the Troki (Ivenets) region, to the villages of Sivitsa, Ugly, Daynova, Kamen, that is, to the eastern edge of the forest, where Korolevshchina is located, where the Usa River originates, - to small homeland Nikolay Gusovsky. It is possible that the genes of ancestors direct modern bison to their life sources... It seems to me that it would be great in 2008 - the year of the 475th anniversary of the memory of Nikolai Gussovsky - to open a memorial sign to the legendary bison on a hill near the village of Korolevshchina.

Vasily SHAKUN, chief engineer for hunting economy of GOLHU “Volozhinsky Experimental Forestry”.

What animal did Nikolai Gussovsky write about?

Let me remind you that the idea of ​​renaming the "Song of the Bison" was expressed in March 1995 by the Russian poet, our compatriot Igor Shklyarevsky, who placed his translation of Gussovsky's poem in the Moscow Hunting Newspaper. However, unlike Korzhenevsky, he proposed calling the beast described in it not a bison, but a tour, which, in general, is quite logical. After all, there were more than enough of these strong and agile bulls with wide-set horns on the territory of present-day Belarus. Unfortunately, they were knocked out during the brutal medieval hunts. Only the memory of the beast remained (for example, in the name of the city of Turov in the Gomel region) and mentions in written sources, including Vladimir Monomakh's Teachings. The last cow from this ancient tribe of artiodactyls fell a hundred years after the writing of the poem. Therefore, it can be assumed with a sufficient degree of certainty that at the time of Gussovsky, tours were already quite rare animals. Unlike the rather peaceful bison (an unarmed person is able to put a whole herd to flight), the aurochs are more aggressive and possessed unprecedented strength. According to the statement of Vladimir Monomakh, the horse and rider thrown by the tour got stuck on a tree.

The poem is written in Latin, according to which both the bison and its relative living in America are called the same - bison. According to scientific classification, they are species of one genus, while the tour belongs to another genus - bulls. Therefore, it is not worth changing the name to “The Song of the Bison”, since the bison is the buffalo. Its name should not be changed to "Song of the Tour", although, most likely, Gussovsky described it in his poem. This will have a negative impact on the further popularization of the work, which is still insufficiently appreciated by the general reader. But in terms of the strength of its emotional impact, the "Song of the Bison" is in no way inferior to such a masterpiece of ancient literature as "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" by Shota Rustaveli. By the way, some translators also recommend renaming this work and calling it “The Man in the Panther's Skin”, since there have never been knights, and even more so tigers, in Georgia.

Vyacheslav SEMAKOV, Belovezhskaya Pushcha.

P.S. So - three different opinions: bison, tour or traditional bison? In order to get closer to resolving the dispute that arose between readers, I decided to turn to specialists in Latin studies. Candidate of Philological Sciences Alexander Zhlutka from the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, who highly appreciated the article by G. Korzhenevsky, believes that the solution to the dispute lies in the poem itself. Gussovsky described both an extinct Poneman "relative" of the bison, calling it a bison, and (in another place in the same work) a tour, the Latin "name" of which in the work is completely different - Urus. The scientist does not recommend rushing to rename the “Song of the Bison”, because this name has already become a tradition. The same opinion is shared by Zhanna Nekrashevich-Korotkaya, Associate Professor of BSU, who is going to respond to G. Korzhenevsky's article with scientific reflection.

Finally, we have one more authoritative judge in the dispute. He saw a formidable beast in the Lithuanian (Nalibokskaya) Forest and sketched it himself or asked someone to sketch it for his book. This is Sigismund Herberstein, a Slovene by birth, the ambassador of the Holy Roman Empire. Twice, in 1516 - 1517 and 1526 - 1527, which means that during the time of Gussovsky, he went to Muscovy, Novgorod and back. His path lay, judging by the embassy's "Notes on Muscovite Affairs" (1556), just along the driest watershed between the Neman and Dnieper basins, and then through Minsk. So, the named book is decorated with an engraving with a distinct inscription Bisons. Agree, this formidable beast, although a “relative” of the bison, is significantly different from it. Three men could actually sit between its horns, according to Gussovsky.

Bison and aurochs are two species of the same genus Bison. Outwardly, these animals are very similar. Both types of mammals are able to mate with each other, giving full-fledged offspring, so some zoologists consider them one species. two more common features for two giant bulls, they fell into the category of endangered animals and descended from a single ancestor - a wild bull that lived in India in the Pliocene.

Definition

bison- these are animals of the genus Bison, the family of Bovids, belonging to the order Artiodactyls.

bison- these are animals belonging to the genus Bison, included in the family of Bovids and are prominent representatives group of artiodactyls.

Comparison

Bison live in North America. In order to occupy this ecological niche, the descendants of the wild bull had to first settle in Siberia, and then cross the bridge of the Berengia land that existed at that time to another continent. Evidence of this fact is a frozen bull found in the ice of Alaska. Unlike future bison, the ancestors of bison moved to the southeast of Eurasia. Everyone knows their images left by the Solutreans on the walls of the Spanish cave of Altamira.

bison

Before the arrival of the Europeans North America herds of bison grazed on its prairies, being the main source of meat, skins, bones for a number of Indian tribes. Eurasian bison preferred woodlands, while the subspecies of the Caucasian bison became notorious, the last representatives of which were killed by shepherds on Mount Alous in 1927. Primitive people hunted bison, and in Ancient Rome they were "exposed" to the arenas of the amphitheaters for fights with gladiators.

North American bison grow up to three meters in length, up to 190 cm in height. The weight of a male in "the prime of life" can reach up to 1.3 tons. The animal has a characteristic fat hump and a truncated, steeply cut croup. The European bison has a body length of 350 cm and a height at the withers of about 180 cm. The maximum weight of mature males is about 1 ton. They have a higher fat hump and a less massive head.

The bison's head is set lower than that of the bison. But the European bull has slightly longer horns and tail. The bison has a black-brown coat, which in summer climbs out of it in matted tufts. The hair of the bison is chestnut in color, and the sides are black-borax. Eurasian animals do not have a bright molting period.

Findings site

1. Animals have different natural habitats: bison lived in North America, and bison lived in Eurasia.
2. Bison are heavier and more powerful than bison.
3. The body of the bison is longer than that of the bison, and the body of the bison is more compact.
4. The bison lived on the prairies, while the bison preferred the woodlands.
5. The color of the bison has more black tones, the bison has more brown.

The differences between these animals are very small, which is why scientists believe that they had a single ancestor. It’s just that part of the livestock migrated along the then existing overland passage to North America. It is so difficult to distinguish between animals that the artist, while designing the US nickel, made a mistake and painted on it not a bison, but a bison.

What do these two types have in common?

Both species belong to the bison order, which, like other wild bulls, have 13 pairs of ribs. These are large massive animals covered with wool.

And one more feature that unites the two species is the recently looming danger of destruction. Wars, hunting and human industrial activity have brought great damage to both populations, putting them on the brink of extinction. But then, thanks to the accepted environmental measures, the number of giants began to grow.

Some bison were brought to the Eastern Hemisphere, where they mixed with local bison. As a result, bison appeared, which are often found in the North Caucasus. These animals combine the characteristics of both species, but, as a rule, they are superior in size.

Differences between bison and bison

Bison are larger than bison, have a more massive hump and a low-set head. The bison sheds heavily in summer, while the bison does not have such a pronounced molting period. The North American beast has smaller horns and a short tail. If we approximately fit both animals into geometric figure, then the bison is square, and the bison's body is more like an elongated rectangle.

Both species interbreed well wild nature and involuntarily. They say that in the zoo-enclosure complex of the village of Zhudre, located in the Oryol woodland, where both species live, an amazing incident happened a long time ago. The bison liked the female bison, and wild animal, breaking through several enclosures, ran to his beloved. However, a male bison stood in his way, and a bloody fight ensued. The fight was terrible. They tried to take the animals away, but it was almost impossible to cope with the two giants. As a result, the bison killed the leader of the bison herd and took the female away.

Bison and bison still live in the zoo-enclosure complex. You can look at them at any time. To do this, it is enough to come to the Oryol region, stopping at. After spending the night, in the morning you can go to see and compare the furry menacing inhabitants of forests and prairies.

Other interesting animals live in the zoo-enclosure complex - foxes, wolves, bears, wild boars, deer, etc. So without beautiful photos and no one will leave memorable impressions.

The wars of the early 20th century left no chance of survival for these majestic beauties and contemporaries of the mammoth.
The last wild Caucasian bison were shot in the Western Caucasus in 1926, and the last plain bison was killed in 1921 in Belovezhskaya Pushcha.

The bison, the only species that was completely exterminated by man in nature, survived by 1927 only in captivity in zoos and zoos in the amount of 48 pieces, but today, thanks to many years of international coordinated work on its restoration, it is returning to nature.
From 1933 to 1939, a single purebred bison named Bodo lived in the USSR, miraculously preserved in a reserve near Kherson.

All bison today are descended from only twelve individuals, that is, from a quarter of all bison preserved in captivity.

The only reserve in the Moscow region, Prioksko-Terrasny, is located 12 km from Serpukhov near the Oka River. It was founded in the late 40s by Mikhail Zablotsky, an outstanding zoologist. Thanks to his efforts, the first herds of bison again settled in Belovezhskaya Pushcha in 1952.

This is one of the smallest reserves in Russia with an area of ​​​​about 5 thousand hectares. However, 142 species of birds and 57 species of wild mammals live here. The main attraction of the reserve is the bison - a wild forest bull, the largest ungulate animal in Europe.

The first bison named Puslaw arrived at the nursery from Warsaw on November 21, 1948, on Zablotsky's birthday. According to Mikhail Alexandrovich, it was the most best gift for his entire life. So the birthday of Mikhail Zablotsky became the birthday of the Central Bison Nursery.
After that, several more animals arrived, and in the future, the breeding herd was completed from its young.

A visit to the Prioksko-Terrasny Nature Reserve traditionally begins with a study of the code of prohibitions, which, as it turned out, are far from being fully displayed on the information stand.

When we took out our TVs, the guide was shocked and said that photo shoots are paid separately. But there was no such information at the box office or on the website. There is only a mention that shooting with "additional equipment" is negotiated separately. But my letter asking what is " optional equipment" was ignored.
In the end, we still managed to take pictures, but the guide was very dissatisfied, and he was offended by attempts to talk normally and to the point, and said that "there are surveillance cameras everywhere" and he "will fly in from the authorities." That is, he decided that with such "large cameras" they take pictures only for the purpose of profit.

After reading my post in its entirety, please tell me in the comments - how would I cash in on this?

400 rubles per person for entry or 2,000 for an individual excursion, and now you are already on the path allocated for a person, and behind the fence there are large areas with animals, which can sometimes be overlooked in the forest.
The guide stops the group every 200 meters and tells about the facts from the life of the reserve.

The raven has the best viewing platform.

Somewhere after a kilometer of the way along a quiet path, the first animals began to come across, mostly having already had breakfast and resting before dinner.

A bison at birth weighs 19-25 kilograms, and during its life span of 19-23 years, the weight of an adult male can reach almost a ton.
At the same time, males live 10 years less than females - on average, about 20 years.
The recorded lifespan record for a male is 23 years, for a female, 30 years.

The gestation period for bison females is the same as for humans - 9 months. Animals reach sexual maturity only by 2.5 years.

In one of the enclosures, an adult male gored a fallen tree, the energy had to be put somewhere, and it wouldn’t hurt to scratch the horns ...

Now the world population of bison is about 4,500 heads, of which about 3,000 animals live in the wild.

By their nature, bison are rather timid, shy animals. In the forest in freedom, they usually avoid meeting a person and, seeing him, run away.
In the pens of the nursery they keep much more boldly, although they obey the bison breeders.

Bison very well remember the sounds accompanying the distribution of food. For example, in the nursery bison for breakfast and dinner (they don't have lunch) come to the sound of a hunting horn or a horn.

Bison love acorns, and the most favorite of tree species are willow, aspen and oak. Bison eat thin branches with leaves, peel and eat the bark from young trees.
At the nursery summer time bison are fed twice a day with mixed fodder and wood fodder, and in winter they add more hay and succulent fodder - chopped beets or carrots.

The reserve also contains several American steppe bison - very close relatives of the bison.

The differences between bison and American bison are minor. The bison has a higher hump, which differs in shape, more long horns and tail.
The bison's head is set higher than that of the bison. The body of a bison fits into a square, and for a bison it fits into an elongated rectangle, that is, the bison has a longer back and shorter legs.

In the hot season, the back of the bison is covered with very short hair, almost bald, while the bison in all seasons has hair developed all over the body. Both species are approximately the same in size, although american bison Due to the stockiness, it looks more compact and stronger.

Here is such a beauty.

Bison are at first glance indistinguishable for an ignorant person. One can only speculate about how they generally managed to call them differently and not be confused. However, one has only to take a closer look and start looking for differences, look at several photos of bison and bison in comparison - and you are unlikely to ever make a mistake when determining which of their mighty bulls appeared before your eyes this time. Of course, you won’t be able to become a specialist right away, but it’s easy to show off your erudition in front of other amateurs!

An old dispute between zoologists

In the zoological classification, bison and bison diverge only at the species level - they have one family and genus. The difference between them and the possibility of referring to two different species, and not smaller subgroups of one, is still being debated. Genetic studies have shown a strong similarity in the paternal component of their chromosomes, but a significant difference in the maternal component, which makes it possible not to combine animals into a group.

Despite this, some scientists are of a different opinion - bison and bison are just subspecies. In favor of this statement, the fact of free crossing of animals is given, which as a result gives viable, strong offspring, known as bison.

However, no matter how hard they try to classify them from the point of view of science, external differences bison and bison are still obvious.

What is the difference between bison and bison

The appearance of these animals is characterized by similarities and differences. In almost every unique feature of these ungulates against the background of others lies the difference between the two species.

Origin

The common closest ancestor is the steppe bison, the similarity is noticeable along the line of the paternal chromosome.

However, bison are genetically closer to the ancient tour, and bison - to the yak, which is explained by the crossing of a common ancestor with different types wild bulls.

Appearance

Bison and bison, although similar to each other, are strikingly different from all other fauna of the Earth.

• They are the largest ungulate mammals in their range in terms of weight. The difference between bison and bison in body weight is significant - the former are much heavier, up to 1300 kg, while the latter usually do not exceed 850 kg.
• The length of the body of both those and other adult males, on average, up to 2.5-3 meters, height - about 2 m, a longer back. The females of both species are noticeably smaller and lighter than the males.
• The front part of the animal's body is wider, stronger and more developed than the back, covered with thick long hair. On the head hairline darker.
• The general shape of the body of bison can conditionally be almost inscribed in a square, bison - in a rectangle elongated in length. The bison looks more like an ordinary domestic bull.
• They have a pronounced hump formed by a short powerful neck and part of the back. Bison have a lower hump than bison. Males of both species are higher than females.
• The legs are rather short, but strong, the hind legs are longer than the front ones. Despite this, they develop speeds up to 50 km / h. The bison have longer and slender legs.

• The head is low, although the bison is higher than the bison, has a wide forehead.
• The bison have longer horns. In both bulls, they are hollow, round in cross section, black, smooth, curved outwards, the ends are turned inward. The base of the horn is wider, gradually narrowing.
• Dark brown eyes, almost no squirrel, long eyelashes.
• The head is covered with curly hair on top, on the neck and under the chest it is straight and long. There is a beard on the chin, which is more pronounced in bison.
• At the end of the tail is a brush. In bison, it is more noticeable. Bison have a tail entirely covered with rather long hair, the density of which increases at the end, forming a brush. The bison's tail is shorter.
• Males and females are clearly distinguishable even from a distance. In females, the genitals and udder are almost invisible even during the feeding period. The genital organs of bulls are shifted to the lower abdomen and stand out noticeably.

Lifestyle

• They live in groups. The number in normal times ranges from one to several dozen heads. The group consists of females and immature bulls, which separate when mature to join to satisfy the instinct of procreation. At other times, they exist singly or in groups of 10-15 males. The livestock of the herd can increase during periods of rut (reproduction) up to several hundred and even thousands of individuals. During the period of food shortage, on the contrary, the groups are divided into even smaller ones.
• The breeding season starts in May and ends in September.
• Bison often form numerous herds due to their greater numbers and way of life (this is especially true of the plains subspecies).
• They occupy a permanent territory of 30-100 km 2, depending on weather conditions and availability of food.
• Active during the day, resting at night.
• Eating morning and evening plant food.
• At rest, they make sounds similar to lowing, during the period of danger and running - similar to snoring or grunting.
• Close bonds between individuals. There have been cases of returning to the bodies of dead animals.

Features of physiological functions and development

Both animals have well-developed organs of hearing and smell, vision is somewhat weaker.

Bison are covered with thick hair all season, while bison in the warm season shed heavily on the back of the body.

The gestation period for females is 9 months.

Achieving independence of an individual occurs on average in one year. Leaving for a male team or a department for living alone can happen even at the age of three.

habitats

Bison and bison - what is the difference between them yet? As an answer, you can also name their habitats.

Bison inhabit the North American continent.

The range of bison was initially very wide - plains and forests of the entire European part of Eurasia - from southern Scandinavia to Siberia. Now, within the same limits, they live mainly in wildlife sanctuaries, nature reserves and zoos. Work is underway on active breeding and subsequent adaptation of animals to the natural conditions of the wild.

During the period of critical reduction in the number of livestock, bison remained only in Belovezhskaya Pushcha and the Caucasus.

Status of bison and bison

The bison simultaneously has the status of a wild animal and livestock.

Bison are not domesticated, although there are nurseries, including bison (for example, located near the village of Toksovo in the Leningrad Region).

Less than 5% of all bison are the property of the state, the rest are commercial, being in private ownership.

Bison have the status of a species close to vulnerable. Bison are listed in the Red Book as endangered animals.

Varieties within a species

There are two pure species of bison - flat (also called steppe) and forest.

The bison is represented only by the plain (steppe) and a cross between the Caucasian, the purebred representatives of which have been exterminated.

There are some errors in comparing bison and bison, depending on the species of both. For example, a bison will differ substantially in its smaller herd size and varied diet from the plains bison, but will have more similarities to the wood bison.

Caucasian bison

The Caucasian bison is now a missing species. All descendants of the last purebred bull of the Caucasus were obtained from its crossing with plain bison - 12 individuals and their descendants.

Caucasian bison were lighter, had compact dimensions compared to their plain relatives, living mainly in mixed forests.

Their color is more reddish, even reddish.

plain bison

The only purebred species obtained from 7 out of 12 surviving individuals by selection.

The color is brown, the body is massive. They are heavier and larger than their Caucasian counterparts.

plains bison

• It has a large head, covered with thick curly hair, over which the horns often hardly protrude.
• The fur cover of the front part of the body is well expressed.
• The color is lighter than forest view bison.
• The beard is very thick, six under the throat is long, continues beyond chest.
• In comparison with the forest counterpart, the steppe is smaller and lighter.
• The most high point the hump is located at the level of the front legs.

wood bison

• The head is neater, long hair, similar to bangs, hangs on the forehead. Horns protrude above her.
• The fur cover is weakly expressed.
• Fairly dark hair all over the body.
• The beard is thin, the mane of the throat is weakly expressed.
• Heavier and larger than the flat species.
• The highest part of the hump is shifted towards the head.

Both bison and bison are closely related to domestic bulls, which made it possible to cross them, obtaining in some cases offspring devoid of a hump, but retaining a fur coat. Perhaps it is these moments, fixed in mental memory, that still periodically lead wild bulls to domestic herds in search of personal happiness.