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Time to welcome back some old friends?
Many of our largest native British species have become extinct over the centuries. PETER FROST asks if it’s time to bring some of them back
The European bison [Dmitriy Guryanov/ Creative Commons]

TODAY’S pub quiz question is what is Europe’s biggest land mammal? Give yourself a point if you went for the European bison or the European wood bison (Bison bonasus). Just half a point if you gave it one of its colloquial names such as the wisent, or the zubr. 

This huge buffalo-like species can weigh up three-quarters of a ton. It isn’t the same species you see in cowboy films. 

That one is the American bison (Bison bison). These are more usually known as buffalo. Actually buffalo and bison are two different types of animals.

A boar piglet, or ‘humbug’
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