© AlamyEuropean bison
Spanish authorities are investigating the death of a second European bison, which was found decapitated just days after staff discovered the headless body of the herd's dominant male.
The death of the bison was similar to that of Sauron, the 660kg (1,455lb) male whose decapitated body was found nearly a week earlier at the reserve.
A spokesman for the central government's representative in the eastern Valencia region where the private Valdeserrillas reserve is located said the animal had been decapitated after death. "Either it died of a natural death, or it was poisoned before being decapitated by an axe," he said.
The European bison, the continent's largest wild land mammal, once roamed across most of the continent but it was severely hunted until it finally became extinct in the wild in 1927, according to the WorldWildlife Fund.
Neither of the dead animals had any bullet wounds, and reserve spokesman Rodolfo Navarro told AFP earlier this week he thought that Sauron might have been poisoned and decapitated by hunters who wanted its head as "a trophy".
Comment: European bison 'Sauron' poisoned, decapitated at wildlife reserve in Spain