A park in southern Lithuania is releasing a herd of 16 bison into the wild. Conservationists are asking people to stay away from the enclosure at the Dzūkija National Park until November 8.
"When grazing, they walk around the whole enclosure because the structure of the herd is such that the leading females look for the best feeding place in the enclosure," says Vytautas Jeremičius, a keeper at the bison farm of Dzūkija National Park.
"Keeping them close to the enclosures is an important job. To prevent them from going to another area, we will provide additional feeding and care," adds Eimutis Gudelevičius, director of Dzūkija National Park.
The three enclosures at the Dzūkija National Park currently have 24 bison. Once the herd of 16 is released, the park will be replenished with bison from Belarus or Poland.
The park keepers will leave the enclosure gates open for two weeks, as well as close the surrounding roads, to allow the bison to roam around.
If you encounter one in the forest, the advice is to wait for it to retreat deeper into the forest, or to leave the area yourself.
For locals in the forested regions of southern Lithuania, seeing bison is nothing new. Experts estimate that around 30 bison already live in the forests of Dzūkija, south of the country.
"[Bison] can smell a person from 50 metres away, you might not even see the bison," says Vilius Petraška, head of the local administration in Marcinkonys, southern Lithuania.
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