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Paper short abstract:

I’ll talk about European bison brought from Bialowieza to Imperial residences near St.Petersburg. The main focus would be the expertise: traditional knowledge and training of the keepers, their eagerness to accept scientific advice, the reasons to keep the bison in the imperial residences, etc.

Paper long abstract:

The European bison from Bialowieza Primeval Forest lived in the residences of Russian emperors since the mid-19th century. By the eve of WWI, at least 35 bison dwelled in the Gatchina Imperial hunting ground near St.Petersburg alone (it was the second largest population kept in captivity). Due to the specific conditions of the Russian Ministry of Imperial Court, information about those animals rarely reached professional zoologists or the academic periodicals, and during the first chaotic year after the Romanovs’ dethroning all Gatchina bison were killed, sharing the fate of the wild European bison. Some of their skeletons and skins are preserved in the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and some information – on the pages of hunting periodicals, but mainly in the archival files. In my presentation, based on the survived documents, I’ll talk about European bison brought from Bialowieza Forest to St.Petersburg vicinities and transported from St.Petersburg to other places. The main focus will be made on expertise: how much did the closed community of the imperial hunt administration rely on its own traditional knowledge, and when was it willing to accept advice from modern scientific knowledge? What kind of training had the people who were involved in caring for the bison? How did the caring for the bison change between the mid-19th and the early 20th century? Why were the bison kept in the Romanov’s residences? To whom and in what cases did the Russian tsars grant European bison, and whose requests were rejected?