DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 117
IF YOU LIKEUntamed Białowieża Forest, a UNESCO
World Heritage site and Biosphere
Reserve, protects remnants of lowland
Europe’s last remaining primeval forests.
Spanning nearly 550 square miles, and
encompassing all of Białowieża National
Park in eastern Poland, the vast forest
creates an oasis of wilderness in the
middle of a crowded continent.
Spot some of the more than 250 bird
species and the most iconic of the for-
est’s 59 mammal species: the European
bison, Europe’s biggest land mammal.
Białowieża’s approximately 800 bison
represent the largest free-roaming
population of a species that rebounded
in the forest after being hunted almost
to extinction by 1920.
How has Białowieża largely retained
its ecosystem for thousands of years?
Biologist Mikałaj Czerkas credits
swamps, which he says surrounded
the forest several hundred years ago.
Tomasz Wesołowski of the University of
Wrocław says it’s thanks to the Polish
kings and Russian tsars who protected it
as a hunting ground. Whatever the rea-
sons, the result is a wild place pulsating
with the natural cycle of life and death.DEEP WOODS
VISITNATUREHOW TO GO
See wild bison and take
a guided hike through
Białowieża’s strictly pro-
tected primeval forest area
on a four-day bison safari
from Warsaw with Wild
Poland. wildpoland.comWHEN
TO GOSEP-
OCT
BELARUS/
POLAND
BIAŁOWIEŻA
FOREST
52.^70
24°^ N,^23.^8524 °EWHY
GO NOW
Discover
one of
Europe’s
last true
wild
placesA
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EUROPE