When breeding wild mammals in captivity, populations may gradually become more adapted to captivity and therefore less suited for reintroduction.  This study investigated the activity budget in European bison (Bison bonasus) in six enclosures in Sweden with the aim to investigate how the design of the enclosures influences the activity budget. The results show that there were significant differences in the activity budget, e.g. there was higher activity in the enclosures with pasture than in enclosures with barren ground. Despite differences in the provision of food and amount of foraging, the total amount of time spent on feeding did not differ between the enclosures. This suggests that the European bisons in both types of enclosures can satisfy their natural polyphasic feeding behaviour. These comparisons show that the patterns of activity may be specific, but that distribution of activity phases in time is modified by the season of the year and the feeding system.