In recent weeks in Poland, five bison have died, most of them illegally slaughtered. Meanwhile, the world press raves about the first in 6,000 year old bison born in the wild in the British Isles. There, they are not afraid to make their highly transformed landscapes wild, they also think of the return of predators, including wolves and bears.
Within weeks, three female European bison were illegally killed during a hunt in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. Both were mistaken by the hunter for boars. A five-year-old suckler cow was killed by a hunter in Ireland, Poland, playing on the so-called exchange hunt. He claimed to have fired in self-defense, but visual inspection revealed he had shot a fleeing animal. Elsewhere, someone shot another woman and was killed several days after being injured.
Also in October, a bison was shot on the other side of the country, which in Białowieża approached buildings, wandered in the local park and visited orchards in search of fruit. The authorization to kill him was given by the competent authorities and the employees of the national park who, in Białowieża Primeval Forest they took care of the bison, explained that the animal had to die because it was aggressive and that the park had no way of dealing with it and isolating it from people. Because it was the people, including the soldiers stationed in large numbers in Białowieża, who taught this young man that there was plenty of food near them.
Read also : It emerges as a training ground. A border dam will ruin nature
How can a bison not be recognized?
The environmental management system is terrible when there are five such situations in a short time. And this is the case of the bison, a species – as biologists say – charismatic, recognizable and popular, which miraculously survived thanks to Polish efforts. The more often they die in similar circumstances wise and other protected animals, plus the arguments of these environmental NGOs demanding that amateurs be banned from shooting animals in forests, fields and grasslands are significant. Because not only amateurs can’t tell the difference between the animals they shoot. They kill each other, other hunters and passers-by. Their psychophysical condition also remains a mystery, because it is only from next year that the provisions on periodic medical examinations for those who want to hunt will come into force. The hunters themselves defend themselves that unfortunate events occur for reasons other than health.
There are claims that go even further. In particular that the regulation of the population of roe deer, deer, wild boar, etc. – if necessary for lack of predators – should only be taken care of by a specialized service paid for by the State. It would replace amateurs with unknown predispositions, who collect trophies as a hobby and, to a large extent, at their expense, help you manage the so-called game animals, that is, animals that can be hunted. Unfortunately, still hunting rifles – who besides hunters owns them? – representatives of protected species, including the rarest mammals, are dying en masse. Their researchers also wonder if they are obsolete animal feeding activitiesto shoot on. Environmental activists also suggest ending the tradition of currency hunting, as mistakes and accidents also happen during these.
This insistence is effective. Only a few years ago commercial bison hunting has been banned. Each year, a certain number of them die in selection shots, motivated by the genetic proximity of the whole species (but here too, experts question the meaning of eliminating certain individuals). Over the years, it has been possible to buy a hunting license for tens of thousands of zlotys, but it took campaigns by environmental organizations and petitions with tens of thousands of citizens’ signatures for two districts foresters, Masuria and Podlasie, break with the tradition of the gunner’s profession. Now they are taken care of by forest inspectorates, thanks to which caring for bison is no longer like raising slaughter animals, but kept not in a barn or paddock, but in fields and forests.
Read also : A short history of the bison
Poaching remains a scourge
Another farce – dubious from a scientific point of view – the hunting of birds, a number of so-called game species, mainly ducks. Their numbers are dwindling rapidly, and the extra hits packed into their bodies won’t reverse that. The most eminent specialists in the recognition of geese, for example, wonder how hunters manage to determine the species when they slaughter their flocks after dark, in the grayness of autumn or even in a thick fog. Because some species of geese are numerous, but representatives of globally endangered species can fly with them in the group. The overall scale of poaching and irregularities must be significant as corpses of slaughtered or injured animals, including wolves and lynx, are regularly found. At the same time, the detection of perpetrators is, of course, minimal.
Another issue is sanctuaries for animals that are inconvenient for some reason, such as the Białowieża bison, which supposedly had nowhere to be taken. The issue is not just about native species, we remember the fate of the tigerswho, under scandalous conditions, traveled to certain death somewhere in the east and were detained on the border with Belarus. Poland has nothing to do with them, because there is no institution that can systematically take care of several cats, and it was necessary to travel across Europe to save them.
Read also : Is killing animals a cultural heritage?
A happy history of bison in the UK
At a time when bison were being killed in the Zachodniopomorskie province and in Białowieża, the world press reported with considerable curiosity another story, the adventures of a London calf, the first of 6 thousand. years of a born bison wild in the British Isles. Long ago the bison were wiped out there, but now intensive efforts are underway to bring them back. They came back with a bang, they were brought from, among others, Poland, the Netherlands and Germany, first ended up in farms, and recently they were released into the forest that was intended for them. In a country devoid of wild animals larger than deer, this was quite an event.
All the more important as the British are trying with increasing verve to wild their highly transformed landscapes, thinking of the return of predators, including wolves and bears. “In the world that is burning, a beacon of hope has shone in a little corner of Kent,” the head of the bison riding organization in southern England said of the calf. Someone can say “a wise Briton after the damage” and, defending the Polish order, refer to ancient achievements in the restoration of bison, which were almost exterminated due to hunting pressure. Only that past merits should not be an excuse for maintaining current pathologies.
Read also : PiS rule. An environmental nightmare
