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Hi all, I just came back from a 5 day trip to the Bialowieza forest in eastern Poland. It's not the best herping spot, although we found lots of DOR juvenile Natrix natrix and several alive ones. We focused on birds and mammals this time. What we have seen with flashlights along the road at night: raccoon dogs, red deer, roe deer, stone marten and fox. But of course, one does not visit the Bialowieza forest without seeing any wild bisons! We had the luck of seeing a large bull and a herd of several bisons on two seperate occasions at dusk. And to top this all off, we we're lucky enough to see an elk couple, crossing the road in front of our car!..

Here are some pictures I took of the large bison bull, it was already getting dark, so please don't mind the noise in the pictures







This was the female elk crossing the road, the picture was taken by a friend sitting in front of the car at that moment



a roe deer



And some extras:

Marsh harrier female



Lesser spotted eagle



Thanks for watching,

Pablo

Cool mammals! Is the english word for Wisent = Bison?

Peter Oefinger wrote:Cool mammals! Is the english word for Wisent = Bison?

It is for the European bison (Bison bonasus), the American species is Bison bison and thus a species on it's own with a slightly different appearance.

Peter Oefinger wrote:Cool mammals! Is the english word for Wisent = Bison?

"European bison" and "wisent" are both used as English names.

Thanks guys. No I learned something new...

I heard so much and saw a lot of pictures of Bialowieza. Thank you, you show us this non herptrip, for sure the bisons are very impressive!
In Northrine-Westfalia we have wild ones too and I visit them last winter. I wondered about how shy this big mammals are.

Niklas Ban wrote:I heard so much and saw a lot of pictures of Bialowieza. Thank you, you show us this non herptrip, for sure the bisons are very impressive!
In Northrine-Westfalia we have wild ones too and I visit them last winter. I wondered about how shy this big mammals are.

The big bull wasn't shy. Maybe the opposite. We we're sitting in a meadow, with our back towards the forest edge (from which they appear). Behind us was some kind of small wooden hut and some bushes. Normally they only start appearing when it gets quite dark, but the bull didn't, to our surprise. We we're just chatting and laughing (not too loud) when suddenly my friend stood up and noticed this large bull at about 60 meters from us. The bull was grazing and didn't really look at us. Only when we moved and walked away to kind of get a better angle of him grazing he lifted his head and stared at us and then continued grazing again. At some point he had enough of us taking pictures and started walking slowly towards us for a couple of meters.. That's when we carefully backed off. A majestic creature it is.

The Wisent shots are great!!!

In a Special way the bull remind my of my good friend GJ!

Pablo Deschepper wrote:a friend sitting in front of the car

Sounds dangerous

Very nice pictures. They are very impressive, the photo and the beast.

Herping in Bialowieza is pretty oke there as well. I've found plenty of stuff while I was there. But, one does not visit Bialowieza for only herps. The amount of wildlife is amazing and the birds and mammals can be and are a very welcome distraction.

Thanks for sharing.

Tim