Abstract
Originally bisons are not produced in Japan, but they are the beasts in which many zoologists here take a great deal of interest. There are two species: namely, one is called an European Bison (Bison bonasus) and the other an American Bison or so-called an American Buffalo (Bison bison), both having been found in great numbers in the vast area some time ago. It is a pity that both of them have decreased in number during comparatively short period owing to the oppression by human beings, and today there are few wild bisons left in the world. It must be interesting to hear about their ups and downs.
It was in the Meiji Era that an American bison, which was a mounted specimen, was first brought to Japan. As for the living beasts, one male and two females of American bisons came to the Zoological Garden at Uéno, Tokyo, on December 4, 1933. They were the gifts from Mr. W. R. Hearst, then Newspaper Magnate of the United States. It is said that it was the first time to carry any wild beasts across the Pacific. On May 22, 1935, a female bison was born as the first young ever born in Japan, and the second one, also a female, came into the world on September 15, 1939.
Besides the Uéno Zoo, the Nagoya Zoo received, through purchase, one female bison in 1936, while Dr. M. Hachisuka, an ornithologist, was presented in 1940 a couple of bisons from the San Diego Zoo, California, USA. They were kept at Hachisuka Farm in Hokkaido, with one breeding. By the end of the World War II, however, all the bisons in Japan had been exhausted, some dying of the disease, others hurted by the bombs or killed by poison at the zoo.
After the war, those who were interested in animals took delight in seeing an adult male of an European bison which came to Japan for the first time in 1952, and again in perceiving a male and a female at the Uéno Zoo which came from America on January 15, 1953.
As for the mounted specimens, there are only a few in Japan, viz. one at the Museum in Tokyo and the other in Sapporo. Also there are two mounted specimens of the head only in Tokyo.
This is a report with illustrations which is detailed as much as possible concerning the bisons that ever came to Japan.
