Poland's bison hunkering down for winter

Five hundred tonnes of hay and beets have been prepared for the winter months by employees of the Bialowieski National Park (BPN) to feed Poland's precious bison herd maintained there.

The director of the bison care facility at BPN, Jerzy Dackiewicz, claims that the recent drastic fall in temperatures means that the stocked food will be all the more necessary. The park has been feeding the bison throughout the winter months at a special feeding grounds for several years.

"If it is a light winter, we still prepare the food, but they prefer to graze naturally out in the fields and forest on grass and young trees," added Dackiewicz.

Park employees also intend to count the herd of endangered bison this year. If such weather – cold and frost – remains, then the herd will be fully counted in two weeks and results will be announced at the end of January. Current bison-count is approximately 450 animals.

The Bialowieska National Park is an internationally recognised protected area for this breed of bison. In the year 1929, the facilities for maintaining a herd of the endangered species were opened and the herd was started with only three bison. The park extends across the Polish border into Belarus.

Source: thenews.pl 07.01.2009