UKRAINE: Local authorities and ecologists are attempting to repopulate the Carpathian mountains with bison brought in from Austria and Germany
Record ID:
783833
UKRAINE: Local authorities and ecologists are attempting to repopulate the Carpathian mountains with bison brought in from Austria and Germany
- Title: UKRAINE: Local authorities and ecologists are attempting to repopulate the Carpathian mountains with bison brought in from Austria and Germany
- Date: 24th February 2011
- Summary: LVIV REGION, UKRAINE (RECENT) (REUTERS) CARPATHIAN MOUNTAINS VILLAGE NEAR MOUNTAINS VARIOUS BISON NEAR MOUNTAINS BISON BUTTING ECOLOGISTS AND GAME MANAGERS TALKING (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) CHIEF GAME MANAGER OF LVIV REGIONAL FOREST ADMINISTRATION, VASILY BURMAS, SAYING: "As you see here we have seven bison. The leader is a dam standing right there, she guides the herd. We also have five more bison in an enclosure, brought from Austria and Germany. We are doing it to 'mix the blood' as people call it, or in other words to build up the population, the gene pool." BISON STANDING BISON ON GROUND VARIOUS GAMEKEEPER THROWING BEET ROOT TO BISON BISON WALKING VARIOUS OF BISON (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) GAMEKEEPER YAROSLAV GUZ, SAYING: "We call them up, put some beet root or scatter feed mixture and they come. They react to voice. They got used to gamekeepers, to me, to the forester. But they react differently to strangers, they become a little aggressive." BISON IN ENCLOSURE VARIOUS BISON EATING BISON IN ENCLOSURE TWO BISON BUTTING ECOLOGIST AND GAME MANAGER NEAR BISON (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF CARPATHIAN ECOLOGY INSTITUTE, OXANA MARYSKEVICH, SAYING: "We are in close cooperation with Bison Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, I am the member of this Union as well. Also we get help from the Bison Friends Society, and this Bison Specialist Group which helps us gather the animals."
- Embargoed: 11th March 2011 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Ukraine, Ukraine
- Country: Ukraine
- Topics: Nature / Environment
- Reuters ID: LVA5CPB15UHE3TMJRL1A04C866R9
- Story Text: The Carpathian mountains used to be home to hundreds of wild bison only fifty years ago.
Today, the number of Europe's largest and most impressive animals went down significantly because of uncontrolled hunting. There were no more than 30 bison in Western Ukraine by the end of 2009, local ecologists say.
In order to save the animals from complete extinction, local authorities and specialists from "Skolivskiye Veskidy" nature reserve decided to participate in the Europe Bison Action Plan which was introduced by the Bison Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
In total, eleven bison were brought to Ukraine from Europe in the last couple of years.
"As you see, here we have seven bison. The leader is a dam standing right there. She guides the herd. We also have five more bison in an enclosure, brought from Austria and Germany. We are doing it to 'mix the blood' as people call it, or in other words, to build up the population, the gene pool," chief game manager of Lviv regional forest administration, Vasily Burmas, says.
The ideal number for one herd of bison is around 40 animals, specialists say. But it takes time and effort to build up such an amount. It is also rather stressful for the animals to be transported to another location, so they need some time and a safe place to adapt to new conditions.
The European ecology organisations, together with the Polish Bison Friends Society, helped the Ukrainians to build a three hectare enclosure for the bison so that they could get used to the area before they are released into the wild.
The bison stay under local gamekeepers and foresters' supervision for half a year. The animals are mostly fed beet root, hay and cabbage.
Bison are considered rather dangerous animals, gamekeepers say. But it did not deter them from giving some of the animals names.
"We call them up, put some beet root or scatter feed mixture and they come. They react to voice. They got used to gamekeepers, to me, to the forester. But they react differently to strangers, they become a little aggressive," local gamekeeper Yaroslav Guz says.
After spending half a year in the enclosure, the bison are released into the forest. The specialists have already released six bison last year, and are letting five more go today.
Since 2009, the bison already had one new cub in the wild, which gamekeepers say proves the 'blood mixing' programme to be working quite well.
Ukrainian ecologists say they are hopeful that with the help from the European societies they would manage to restore the bison population in the area.
"We are in close cooperation with the Bison Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. I am the member of this union. We get help from the Bison Friends Society and this bison specialist group which helps us gather the animals," Oxana Maryskevich, Deputy Director of Carpathian Ecology Institute, said.
Maryskevich says that in five years, they plan to have more then 120 bison in the Carpathian mountains.
The territory of "Skolivskiye Veskidy" nature reserve is 50 thousand hectares and specialists hope the bison could live there freely without bringing any harm to the local agriculture. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None