Wisent - the giant of the European forests

Wildlife is one of my favourite type of photography. Being in nature on the fresh air and observing the animals of all kinds is a rewarding enough by itself and if I manage to get a decent shot -what would I wish more? Unfortunately it is also one of the most difficult kinds of photography, the animals are unpredictive, usually hard to find and even harder to find in a real photo opportunity position.
Animals in captivity are much easier to photograph, but usually the setting is man-made and it doesn’t look appealing as a true wilderness is. At Bavarian forest national park (Bayerischer Wald National Park) there is a part where the animals are kept in large enclosures that look like a natural environment. The place is called Tier-Freigelände and is situated near Neuschönau village. They keep most of the European wild animals, wolves, deers, wild boars, bears, lynx, otters, several species of birds…

One of the most attractive animals is definitely a Wisent - European bison (Bison Bonasus), which was almost extinct, but they successfully reintroduced it to the wild. They roam freely now in the forests of Poland, Ukraine, Belarus… I’ve never seen those beautiful animals before so I was eager to finally encounter them.

The first two visits to their enclosure was a big disappointment as it is huge and the animals were hiding at the other end of it among the trees. It was impossible so see them even from the viewpoint above the enclosure. On the last day when I was already walking back to my room there they were! The day was ending and there was no people around so they moved closer to graze. I carefully approached them to the fence of the enclosure and prepared my camera.

An intimate sight of a mother and a calf.

The father was smelling the air for potential danger.

The adult bull. Magnificient animal!

Hey you funny looking animal, get away from my herd!

This bull obviously did not appreciate my presence. He approached me threatening, so I backed away and just observed these beautiful creatures from the distance.

I will post some more photos of the visit to Bavarian forest with the next posts.

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