Academic Heritage Day 2024: The 170-Year-Old Imperial Bison

Many universities have diverse collections that have been used in teaching and research over centuries and studied primarily for their scientific and historical value. In recent years, there has been growing attention to the provenance of objects held in these collections — uncovering how each item came to the university, sometimes leading to remarkable discoveries. One such example is the European bison at the University of Tartu’s Natural History Museum, which can still be seen in the exhibition room today.

Centuries ago, the bison was widely spread across Europe, inhabiting much of the temperate deciduous and mixed forest zones. As human settlement expanded, the bison’s range diminished, and by the 19th century, the last refuge of the European bison was the Białowieża Forest in northeastern Poland, where the last wild bison was killed by poachers in 1919. The European bison in the University of Tartu’s zoological collection was hunted in the Białowieża Forest in 1853. At that time, this ancient forest still had a natural population of bison, untouched by human activity for centuries, and only hunted by the kings of Poland-Lithuania. Following Poland’s annexation in the 19th century, hunting rights were restricted to Russian rulers.

In the summer of 1852, the council of the University of Tartu decided to acquire the largest animal of the European forests — the European bison, which can stand up to two meters at the shoulder and weigh nearly a ton — for the zoological cabinet. By the mid-19th century, the university’s zoological collection had undergone significant improvements: Professor Grube had expanded the collection and enhanced the exhibits, with plans to further diversify them. The Russian Ministry of National Education supported the university’s initiative, even appealing directly to Emperor Nicholas I. On October 26, 1853, permission was granted to hunt one bison from the emperor’s hunting grounds for the University of Tartu’s zoological collection. To ensure the success of this complex task, Grube sought guidance from the Imperial Estates Office of Grodno, which provided detailed instructions on how to skin the animal, separate the legs, head, and bones, and prepare the hide.

In late November 1853, Jegor Filippov, the conservator of the University of Tartu’s zoological collection, set out with a coachman and a two-horse carriage to Grodno in the Białowieża Forest. The journey was time-consuming and costly, with stops at 44 post stations along the way. Filippov, who had previously worked at the Zoological Museum of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, was an experienced conservator who had been employed at the University of Tartu since 1850. Dispatched to Białowieża for 30 days, Filippov was expected to observe the bison in its natural habitat, participate in the hunt, skin the animal, and prepare a preliminary frame for the taxidermy on-site. The first hunt was unsuccessful — despite Filippov having chosen a large, beautiful bison from the herd, bad weather interfered, with heavy snow beginning to fall. To account for the failed attempt, the Grodno Estates Office, at Filippov’s request, sent an official document to the university verifying that Filippov had made an earnest effort but had been hindered by the weather. The hunt and processing of the bison took longer than the planned 30 days, and Filippov’s wife in Tartu had to apply for living expenses from the university due to her husband’s absence. Finally, the hunt succeeded, and after preparing the initial frame for the taxidermy, the disassembled specimen was packed in several transport crates and arrived in Tartu in mid-January 1854.

But the bison’s adventures did not end there. Only 60 years later, as part of the Russian Empire, the University of Tartu was forced to evacuate all its assets to the Russian interior due to World War I. The bison was loaded onto a train and transported along with the rest of the zoological collection. Although, according to the peace treaty signed between the Republic of Estonia and Soviet Russia after the war, all evacuated assets from the university were to be returned, most of the museum’s collections were never recovered. Officials cited missing evacuation lists, inability to locate the assets, and various other reasons to obstruct the work of Estonian and university representatives in Russia. Only a few crates containing small mammals, along with 16 skeletons and larger animals, including both bison taxidermies, were returned.

Text by Inge Kukk