November is in full swing and we are slowly entering the winter season. Distributing bison food to pastures, hay or beetroot is a easy! There is a much difficult task for our Field Group.
At the end of each year, individuals are counted in wild herds and in closed pens inhabiting Poland, and the number is entered in the Bison Pedigree Book kept by the Białowieża National Park. Bison are skittish animals, so counting them is a real challenge! How to count escaping bison among trees ?! This is where our colleagues from the Field Group come in! Quick counting is the key … Sneaking as quietly as possible, preferably from behind a tree, that the bison would not notice 🙂 A camera comes with help, if you need to efficiently count the escaping bison botty 😉
At the moment, we have 12 herds of free-living bison in our region, and their total number is about 400 individuals (the exact number will be known at the beginning of next year) … this is at least as many locations to count.