bison

While the fishing season in the lowlands in Poland is slightly suspended at the beginning of the year, right now we have one of the best moments to observe nature, especially the large mammals that live in our forests.

Recently, we have devoted some time to European bison living wild in the Białowieża Forest – both in the National Park and in the rest of the forest. Usually, the most effective and at the same time the most convenient way to observe European bison in the winter is going by car and visiting forest clearings and forest borders one after another – known spots of expected bison presence . Bison willingly go out to such places and nibble green shoots, leaves and twigs, just like winter crops on sown fields.

In the early days, using the remnants of the snow, we devoted most of our time to searching and tracking bisons in the forest backwoods. Tracking animals is a great adventure in itself!

In this way, we managed to approach elk in a birch grove, as well as deer, roe deer and wild boars. However, the bisons were very careful – too careful to be photographed. Twice we managed to track down and see a small herd consisting of a few animals. In both cases, however, the animals got spooked as they approached a convenient photographic position.

The next few days, in a small group of 2-4 people, we decided to look for bison in the clearings. A tour of spots, where bison appear regularly, quickly gave us a good result. European bison appeared regularly at several sites, allowing convenient photography from a distance. In one case, we were able to get very close to the herd with the young – a great experience!

There are still a few weeks ahead of us, which are worth spending on observing animals – now is the best time to do it!