I watched a huge European bison licking a treat of oats from a feeder with its purple tongue. It didn’t notice me and just kept lifting its enormous head and glancing towards me, estimating the danger level, figuring out if it was time to flee. So long as I stood still, the bison continued to enjoy its food, but if I moved, changed the lens on my camera or turned sharply, the creature would shudder and even stagger back. Despite being so close, the animals don’t let people pet them; a bison in general can’t be tamed.
With little grains of oats stuck to their noses, the bison, despite their size, looked very cute. I was sitting inside a viewer’s feeder, which was built for observing the animals while feeding them, with Sergey Fedoseev, the manager of Kaluzhskiye Zaseki. Some bison were eating with great appetite, about twenty more, of red and brown colour, were standing nearby chewing hay. “How huge they are,” I thought again. Bison are the largest ungulate species in Europe; their weight can reach one and a half tons. Even though scientists have proved that the bison have shrunk over the last few centuries, their size is still impressive.
“There weren’t any bison in Kaluzhskiye Zaseki 15 years ago, the financing was only enough for security,” Sergey said, “we couldn’t afford to bring the bulls like the management of Orlovskoye Polesye National Park did. But one of the groups of these animals soon appeared on the territory of the nature reserve. And they stayed here. As the zoologists explained, those smart ungulates realised that the area was safe for their herd, they sensed animal trails where boars and roe deer walked freely.”
The mountainous area with large ravines, broadleaf forest, maple trees, linden forests and oak groves, and small rivers turned out to be a perfect place for them to live. The first settlers of Kaluzhskiye Zaseki were 13 individuals — 8 bulls and 5 cows, which came from Orlovskoye Polesye. The initial expectations were quite pessimistic as the scientists thought that the herd would not be viable due to the large number of males in it. They were wrong. However, the first bulls were aggressive and attacked people; there was such a horror. The cows were fine, they just protected their babies as always. But these were huge males. “There were no serious accidents though,” the manager recalled. A few more individuals were brought with the help of WWF, the World Wildlife Fund.
The bison were careful and did not leave the nature reserve area during the first 10 years. “The bison are cagey animals,” Sergey explained. I realised that later when we got to the northern parts of the nature reserve hoping to spot a wild family. However, we didn’t manage to find a herd of those enormous creatures. It still surprises me how a group of 61 individuals could hide in the forest so well at the time of my visit.
Over one decade the population of bison in Kaluzhskiye Zaseki increased several times; the animals split into small groups. However, the forest bison from the southern part of the nature reserve haven’t yet travelled to the northern part; there is a 10 km distance between them. The bison easily get closer to each other, sometimes even exchanging partners in families — they migrate between groups. They have a matriarchy, so the female is the head of the family. Males return to the herd during the rut.
“They are so large, they must need a lot of food,” I stated the obvious.
“They have enough food, they feed on maple seedlings and spruce, and take the bark from the lindens. The poor lindens are naked because of that,” Sergey laughed. Now the bison have come to eat some oats and hay. It is difficult to deliver the hay; a tractor is needed. The grains are sometimes delivered by snowmobiles. After piling up a sheaf of hay for the bison, two tractor drivers were seen inspecting a large wheel, which probably needed to be repaired. The hay is enough for a week. It is bought only from locals in order to avoid the introduction of other plants.
“How much grain do you buy?” I wondered.
“As much as we can physically bring at one time, about 70 tons. The bison might eat more. We try to save it for the three winter months. In summer we also feed the animals a little bit, so that they remember there is food here,” Sergey answered.
While we were crawling along the forest roads, Sergey was telling us about his fights with poachers, quarrels with Ulyanovo villagers, checking videos from camera traps.
“Are bison killed for meat?” I clarified.
“Yes, people say that their meat isn’t any different from beef; I haven’t tried it. We have almost completely eliminated poaching. However, there were severe problems earlier. I am a local, from Ulyanovo, I have worked at the nature reserve since 1994 and know nearly every single poacher. There was a memorable case in 2016, when a calf and its mother were killed. We took the poachers to court, and they were ordered to pay a substantial fine.”
“There was a classic resettlement in Kaluzhskiye Zaseki,” Sergey recalled. “The bulls were settling down in the territory, the selected males covered the cows. A small group of males expanded the habitat, keeping apart on the periphery. Obviously, they fought a lot. I often encounter single-horned or single-eyed individuals.”
“We do not interfere with wildlife. Nevertheless, we conduct veterinary observations. We are currently working on a federal scientific program, analysing the animals’ excrement for stress hormone levels. Our main goal though is to preserve the species,” Sergey continued.
There are 6 camera traps constantly working in the nature reserve; they are installed mainly near the feeders. Of course, the equipment gets stolen or stops working from time to time. However, the material obtained is enough to conduct continuous observation of the bison. There are several different groups within the nature reserve at the moment, apart from the “singles” — bulls that walk around the forest on their own. Young males don’t usually come near the feeders. The largest group consists of 34 bisons, and the scientists are struggling to count the calves in it. It is an extremely difficult to do when the herd appears at the feeder.
We were taking a walk on an eco-path. Even though there are a lot of animals in the forest — wild boars, hares, moose, roe deer, foxes, wolves (over two hundred, by the way), badgers, wolverines and lynx — we certainly didn’t see any. Only the tracks. Most of them had been left by bison. They are fast runners and can speed up quickly. If the creatures are frightened, their hooves spread, and the tracks help to tell that the bison fled. It became obvious that poachers had been in the forest, or maybe they were scared away by wolves.
Sergey proudly showed us the forest and the oak grove where really old trees could be found — 200–400 years old and four arm-spans wide. I noticed that some trees were burned on the inside. “Could that be from lightning?” I wondered. “Of course not, that is from marten hunting in the 80s. They set the hollow where the marten lived on fire, and then lured the animal out and let the dogs catch it. A marten’s skin was worth up to 100 roubles in the USSR. A beaver’s was 300.” The beavers couldn’t be found anywhere at that time,” Sergey answered.
It was calm in the forest. I would have liked to see a wonderful snowy fairy tale for sure, but winter was too warm that year and had little snow. I remembered that Ivan Turgenev described these places in “A Sportsman’s Sketches” (“The Hunting Sketches”): almost nothing had changed since then. Only the bison appeared.
After walking and breathing the fresh forest air, Sergey and I returned to one of the feeders. The nature reserve manager decided to install another camera trap for a couple of weeks. “Who usually gets caught on camera, besides the bison?” I wondered. “A lynx was caught on camera recently, and black storks were filmed literally a metre away. Those are hard to find.” “Just like the bison,” I thought. We haven’t been able to spot a wild group, not even from afar.
The “Four Seasons of Russia” project is supported by the Russian Geographical Society www.rgo.ru
The trip to Kaluzhskiye Zaseki is recommended by the Russian Geographical Society.
Translation: Irina Romanova, Instagram: @astrabella1
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