‘They took his head as a trophy’: Bison named Sauron killed on Spanish reserve

Suspected poachers struck a Spanish reserve last week, reportedly poisoning a herd of European bison and claiming the largest male’s head as a trophy, according to the Guardian.

Police began investigating the attack on the Valdeserrillas reserve Friday, when manager Carlos Álamo discovered the body of Sauron, the largest male in the herd, with his head hacked off and nowhere to be found.

Three additional bison were missing from the herd, and reserve spokesman Rodolfo Navarro said staff were searching for them on foot.

Álamo had found several members of the bison herd in distress during a check of the fenced-in reserve last week, but only realized why the several-hundred-pounds animals had run away from him when he found Sauron’s carcass in another part of the 900-acre site.

Reserve officials said they suspected that the herd had been poisoned, as several of the bison showed signs of diarrhea, the Guardian reported, and Sauron, who often ate first and most as the herd’s largest member, likely was struck particularly hard by whatever poison the attackers had used.

Nature protection officials said they had taken samples from Sauron’s headless body to determine how he might have been poisoned, the Guardian reported.

Sauron, who weighted more than 1,700 pounds, was named for the omnipresent villain in the Lord of the Rings series “because he was the biggest and the most powerful,” Navarro told the Guardian. “He was sort of the symbol of the reserve.”

Navarro speculated that the attackers “took his head as a trophy.”

“It must have been a gang because one person couldn’t commit this kind of brutality on their own,” he added to the Guardian. “The police are investigating and it will be difficult, but we hope they get them.”

The European bison, which is classified as a vulnerable species, nearly went extinct during the last century when they were hunted for their hides and horns. Dedicated conservation efforts have lifted the worldwide population from just a few dozen to a couple thousand animals, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

Located in eastern Spain, the reserve in Valencia had been home to this Spanish herd of 12 for less than a year, according to the Guardian. Relocated from the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK, the dozen bison were part of an effort to slowly reintroduce the species across the continent, Navarro told the paper.

The reserve had invested years in the reintroduction effort and was now threatened by the bison attack, Navarro added, likening the killing to murder.

“It’s just senseless,” he said. “It’s really damaged not only our image and Valencia’s, but also Spain’s.”

This story was originally published September 20, 2016 at 9:06 AM with the headline "‘They took his head as a trophy’: Bison named Sauron killed on Spanish reserve."