Bison roam freely in one of Europe's last primeval forests

By Arnd Petry Jul 12, 2011, 2:06 GMT

Bialowieza, Poland - Irek Smercynski pushes open the heavy wooden gate at the entrance to the inner sanctum of this Polish national park. Here is the most stringently protected zone where no visitor may tread alone.

The woodland landscape is unfamiliar to modern eyes. It seems as if time has stood still in these parts. This is a dense lowland forest where wolves, lynx and Europe's largest mammals roam among the rich biodiversity which includes many rare plants and shrubs, mushrooms, lichen and animal species which have long since vanished elsewhere.

Above our heads the fronds and branches of several of the largest trees on the European continent create a natural canopy. These are jewels in the crown of the Bialowieza National Park in eastern Poland, a protected temperate, deciduous forest which can genuinely be called 'primeval.'

'It's 7 o'clock and that is normally too late to spot any animals. We should have set off earlier,' says Irek. The slightly-built man in his mid-thirties has lived in this remote corner of Poland since childhood. He works as a guide in addition to his job at the local botany station of Warsaw University.

'It's fine for watching trees though,' concedes our companion. 'They won't run away.' The trees eventually fall down but they are left to their own devices and rot away. That is one of the main differences between this wood and a conventional, managed forest.

Bialowieza is littered with thick tree trunks, many measuring more than a metre in diametre. Mighty oaks, elms and lime trees stand tall until they are blown down by storms. The conifers and oaks grow to be as lofty as 12-storey houses. 'More than a third of the trees are more than 150 years old,' said Irek. Around 56 different species of mammal share this habitat and apart from bears there is everything one might expect in an ancient European forest.

The list includes otters, beavers, wild cats, wolves, elks and deer along with the European bison which adorns the park's coat of arms. These mighty mammals have been the saviour of Bialowieza forest down the centuries.

As far back as 600 years ago Polish kings liked to hunt the massive creatures which can grow to weigh up to 900 kilos. Tree-felling was forbidden in order to ensure that the potential wall trophies could roam freely. The Russian czars, who ruled over these parts between 1795 and 1918, followed suit. Bialowieza forest became their private territory and poaching bison was a serious offence punishable by death.

The demise of the czars and the power shifts that followed the end of World War 1 spelt the death knell for Europe's lowland bison. In February 1919 the last bison was shot dead in Bialowieza by a forestry official who had recently been dismissed from his post.

Shortly afterwards Bialowieza was proclaimed a nature reserve. The woodland tract was placed under protection in 1923 and it formed the basis of Poland's first national park which as set up in 1932. By that time the bison had already been back for three years. The last remaining examples in captivity were taken to a new breeding station in the territory. The project was successful and there are now around 3,000 European bison around the world. All of them are descendants of animals bred in Bialowieza.

Some 900 bison wander through the undergrowth in Bialowieza forest today. Around 500 live on the Polish side of the border and the rest on the other side of the EU border fence in Belarus. The best opportunity to see bison in the wild is by following the Bison Track, a path which leads to the north of the reserve for some 20 kilometres. It links the winter feeding grounds which are located at the clearings of Babia Gora und Kosy Most.

In the summer months the shy bison, which tend to live in the forest in small groups, congregate here at dawn. 'The earlier in the morning the better,' recommends Irek. A good time is between 3.30 and 4.00 am.

Dusk affords another opportunity. It is currently 9.30 pm and outside the Kosy Most retreat the wet meadows on the banks of the Narewka river lay spread out beneath a cloudless summer sky. In the warm light of the dying sun tiny insects whirr like snowflakes above the grass and dragonflies flit across the grass. Daylight vanishes and in the waist-high grass a bison cow makes it way along.