Traditional winter census of European bison begins in Belovezhskaya Pushcha

The traditional winter census of European bison has started in the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha. The census will go on throughout the winter months, BelTA informs with reference to the scientific department.

The census involves bison ecologists, teriologists, gamekeepers and employees of the Department of Science. Modern methods allow you to keep records of animals not only by visual ground method, but also from the air. Snow is not necessary for this purpose.

"In recent years, we generally use a quadcopter to count. From the tracks, from the tower, with binoculars we keep a visual count when they gather near the feeding grounds. But the quadcopter gives us more accurate data. It shoots at different heights, in motion, on difficult terrain. It is possible to make a high-quality picture in the open spaces and to count and identify animals by sex and age more exactly," Sergey Korotya, the researcher of the park, noted.

The territory of Belovezhskaya Pushcha covers 180 thousand hectares. The whole area can't be explored within three months. That is why the animal census takers mainly work in the open spaces according to the preliminary data of the rangers. "They know approximately where the bison live, and we go there," said an employee of the scientific department.

The forest is home to five large herds. They are now and then united into territorial groups, and then separated. The most numerous is the southern group where almost every second bison of the national park lives. In recent years, there has been a steady increase in the population: in 5 years it has increased by almost a third. Meanwhile, scientists consider the number of up to 350 animals to be a balanced ceiling of the Belovezhskaya bison micro-population.

According to the latest data, as of January 1, 2022, Pushcha was inhabited by 703 European bison, including 117 adult males (over three and a half years), 402 adult females, 107 young (from one to three and a half years) and 77 calves."