Bison challenge that put me in the picture
A READER asked me recently whether I had favourite stories amongst the thousands I have shared over the years and, although it was a great question, it had me racing back over the years: a real head scratcher.
Challenges can be very difficult to turn down, so here’s a story from four years ago that’s right up there.
You see, I had been charged with the task of obtaining a photograph of myself with a European Bison in the background.
The task was set by Raging Bull Clothing, the company owned by England’s World Cup winning prop-forward Phil Vickery, after I teased him their logo looked like a bison, not your standard bull. Phil slung his gauntlet on the ground and said, “Go on then!”
A week later I was on my way to Poland’s Bialowieza Ancient Forest, a Unesco World Heritage Site, not least because of the 150 square kilometres of deciduous and conifer woodland which has changed very little in two thousand years, but more importantly because it is one of the last refuges of the European Bison, or Wisent, which once roamed the entire continent.
Wild bison were extinct in Poland and Belarus by 1919 and absent from the north-western Caucasus eight years later: it was only a timely reintroduction of captive animals from zoos and private collections that saved this magnificent beast.
There are now between 800 and 1,200 bison in the Polish side of the forest and possibly slightly more over the border in Belarus.
The sides are cut in half by two large border fences and a no-man’s land of sixty metres in between, meaning the herds never meet.
The forest is magnificent in its own right, the trees share a unique bond with people, nature and the landscape and are a vital part of our history and heritage.
As I marvelled at it’s height, forced upwards fighting for a share of the light, the loud call of a black woodpecker echoed through the woods and the snorting of a wild boar drew me deeper into the trees – 2,000 years in the growing and still going, a magical and vast area of unique broad-leafed woodland.
England was once like this, when a pine marten could have chased a squirrel from Nottingham to Woodhead without touching terra-firma.
What a lovely thought: shades of glades gone by
Within a few hundred metres of the village of Bialowieza, there are large fields, mostly cropped for hay and sparsely hedged tracks which lead to the edge of forest.
The hope was to catch the bison before they returned to the anonymity of the forest soon after daybreak.
As the sun fought it’s way through the mist, all manner of fresh tracks were revealed, including bison, badger, fox and even a wolf.
Although a sighting of this top of the line predator was unlikely on a short trip, it was a pleasure to be so close, perhaps even minutes away, as the tracks were fresh and a musky smell hung in the air like a necklace.
Thankfully, the bison were altogether more obliging and there was no mistaking the characteristic shape in the distance, very similar to it’s North American cousin and although it was possible to take reasonable pictures of a large family group, a ‘selfie’ was out of the question.
Local guide and guardian of the forest, Mateuz Symura was given the job.
“I know a place and if you are quick, I think this may be possible”, he said.
There followed a fast moving adventure, involving red squirrels, red deer and whistling for Pygmy Owls: yes you read that correctly.
Whistling for Pygmy Owls is a skill Mateuz learned from his father and one of these starling-sized beauties promptly whistled right back as he flew towards us, before realising he had been tricked, doing the equivalent of a cartoon double-take and flying off.
After a breathless two miles Mateuz said, “We may be in luck”.
He was right and, in a repeat of the earlier distant sighting, there were two individuals feeding on hay left out for cattle by a local farmer, which allowed me to get within twenty metres.
My Polish friend knew his way around a camera and we got pretty close.
These beasts can weigh up to 900 kilos and turn in a nifty 35 mph off a standing start.
“Don’t worry”, Matteuz advised.
“Just remember, if you see his tail twitching, run like the wind”.
“But they’re behind me,” I said with a nervous glance.
As for Raging Bull, when I sent the picture through, they called back and said,
“Job done, Sean, job done!”