Lucky Chap is a wolf that we released from a snare. We gave to him this charming name and installed telemetry collar in order to monitor his further movements. Lucky Chap has started sending data to us since the beginning, so we now know that he quickly got back to his pack and stayed in previous home range area within Drawsko Forest Inspectorate. At the beginning of April the wolf surprised us, because he left his pack and set off for individual trip. The loner is probably looking for a new territory and alpha female that he could make a new pack with. Last data show that Lucky Chap is moving towards East. We appeal for looking out for a wolf with a collar and sending information about him to us. We also hope that the wolf would not fall victim to human actions again. From our side we promise to keep informing You about his movements and meanwhile we have made a new map depicting his journey through data from his telemetry collar available 🙂

The earth has greened again. The sun awakens flora and fauna to life with its touch. After long winter months bisons impaqtiently awaiting for first ray of the spring sun. For them this is basically a time for intense feeding up after the winter. Herds are going away from feeders and wandering around looking for fresh grasses. Last year’s calves are going through compensation of growth now. The abundance of high protein sources of food makes calves grow fast and get similar to mature individuals. Spring is also the time of losing winter undercoat. Sheding hair happens gradually. It starts near neck and spreads all over their body. Bulls in this time stays away herds intensely gaining weight by devouring vast amounts of grass. Younger bulls stay in small bachelor groups while older ones prefer to live singly. They would get back to the main herd aroud late summer when there starts mating season. April and may is the time of first deliveries, so we can start looking out for toddlers hiding between legs of their protective mothers.

Zdrowych, Radosnych Świąt Wielkanocnych

Wiosennego Nastroju, Pogody Ducha

i Wszystkiego Żubrowego

życzy

Zachodniopomorskie Towarzystwo Przyrodnicze

We joyfully announce that building of the footbridge and observation tower in the “Securing the population of European bison in the north and western Poland from tourist pressure” is coming to an end and soon its final effect will be available for You to see. You are welcome!

Such stories are daily bread to us and again we managed to be in the righ tplace in the right time. The second time we saved wolf caught in a snare. The information about the wolf we received on sunday morning from hunters associated in Lynx Dobiegniew Hunting Club. The hunters during searching hunting area encountered the trapped wolf near Chrapow spot. After the arriving at the place it turned out that that was big, about 8 years old, experienced wolf, probably the alpha male, that is a leader of a pack. The wolf was caught in steel loop tightened around its pelvis and slightly immersed in skin. The animal was very weakened and that meant that it had been there for about four days. Luckily, the wolf did not have bleeding wounds, so we decided to intervene as little as possible and immediately relase him. We installed telemetery collar on him to monitor his trails. On the area of this incident there is a weak GSM signal, so we may wait for first telemetry data received for a week or two. Anyway, any data received would mean that the wolf is alive and this is the most important information to us now. We would like to send thousand thanks to hunters who passed the information about the wolf to us. Thanks to them we carried out successful operation and the wolf is probably alive. At their request the wolf has been given the name “Rysiu”, taken from the name of the hunting club. Therefore, keep our fingers crossed for the wolf called “Rysiu”. If you know about similar situations, please inform us. The fate of wild animals is in our hands. Let’s protect them from cruelty of poachers.

The wolf after installing telemetry collar and releasing from a snare.

The mother of Bysia called “Single-horn” was already an aged cow with enormous experience when she gave birth to the title-cow.  In late autumn when Bysia was already quite big half-year cow, Single-horn started being ill. The calf stayed close to her all the time. Unfortunately, Single-horn died in January. Bewildered Bysia had been returning to the dead mother for several days until she started going away in search for other bisons. At that time a local herd was already in a place of winter feeding, which was not known by Bysia. Destiny of orphaned calves is insecure and on areas with wolf occurence a lone calf is an easy prey. She was saved by Western wind , which brought smell of a small group of bulls feeding on fields at Długie Lake. It turned out that there was her father called The First in the encountered group. Bysia luckily found company and protection. Today, her security is provided by three wonderful bulls, see it for yourself. 🙂

We very much thank Cezary Korkosz for making these pictures available