ENVIRONMENT

Poland has areas of outstanding natural value, both Europeanwide and worldwide. There are still places hardly touched by the civilization, like the wild and desolate Bieszczady Mountains with their spectacular pastures known as poloniny, and the inaccessible flood plains along the Biebrza River, home to many rare bird species, sometimes found nowhere else in Europe.
The most valuable gems of Poland's flora include the several hundred ancient oak trees in the Rogalin forest near Poznan. Every Polish schoolchild learns about the thousand-year-old Bartek oak near Kielce which was officially recognized in the 1930s as the biggest and oldest tree in the country. Bartek appears in many legends like the one about King Casimir the Great, eminent ruler of medieval Poland, who is said to have tried his subjects in its shade. In fact, however, Bartek is much younger than a yew tree in Henrykow Lubanski, north-east of Jelenia Gora, whose age is estimated as over 1250 years, which is more than the history of Polish statehood.
Conifers up to 50m can be found in the Bialowieza Forest, ruled by the European bison, Europe's biggest animal. Great brown bears live in the Tatras and the Bieszczady, while white-tailed and golden eagles, Poland's biggest birds of prey, wheel the skies.

Poles have a particular liking for horses, a common sight almost everywhere, and storks. Horses have always played an important role in Polish culture, economy and customs: they were used for riding, cart-pulling, hunting, farming and fighting. Poles spent much time in the saddle already in the early Middle Ages when they had to fight off countless attacks. Unsurprisingly, they were famed as excellent riders and horse-riding became a much valued skill in Poland. The remarkable charges of Polish hussars at Kircholm (1605) and at the Siege of Vienna (1683) have their place in the history of Europe. Polish cavalrymen were known far outside the country. It is a Polish emigre, General Kazimierz Pulawski, a hero of the American War of Independence, who is regarded as the father of American cavalry. The horse was so popular and common in old Poland that in 1746 one of the first Polish encyclopedias described the animal in the following way: "Everyone knows what a horse looks like".
Today horses are rarely used as draught animals, but you can still see them in many Polish farmsteads. In the 1960s there were over two million horses in Poland; now the number has dropped to a fourth of that and they are largely bred in the east part of the country. They prove irreplaceble during the occasional very harsh winters, when only horse-pulled sleighs can reach remote places cut off from the world by heavy snows. The animals are also beginning to play an important role in recreation, rehabilitation and sports. Horse-riding is quite a popular pastime in Poland. There are numerous stud farms and at many places you can rent a horse.
Passion for horses combined with centuries-long breeding traditions put Polish Arabians among the most valued horses in the world. They are bred at three state-owned stud farms: in Michalow, Bialka and Janow Podlaski. The auctions at Janow have long been attracting world's leading horse breeders like Shirley Watts, wife of the famous Rolling Stones drummer, whose acquisitions include the mare Pilarka, the first Polish World Champion. Polish horses fetch fairly high prices; for example, in 1981 the stud El Paso was sold for 1 million dollars, while in 1985, 1.5 million dollars was paid for the mare Penicylina.
Many Polish towns, institutions and organizations have the stork in their names, emblems or logos, which best shows how much the bird is revered in the country. It was also Poland's mascot at the Expo 2000 in Hanover. Storks feature in many Polish fairy tales and legends, they have often been given human names like Wojtek and a stork nest has always been believed to bring fortune to the homestead (for this reason, old cart wheels were once commonly placed on the roof to attract the birds).
Poland is called a stork haven or a "stork superpower" as it has the biggest number of white storks in Europe. While this species is no longer seen in Holland and Sweden, and it only occasionally appears in France, Poland boasts over one-fourth of its European population. This is due to the country's landscapes which abound in places suitable for nesting as well as to clean environment with plenty of food.
The location of stork nests varies throughout the country. In Warmia and Masuria storks tend to choose roofs, while in Wielkopolska they prefer trees. This is probably related to different types of landscape in every region. Over the last 20 years, and particularly over the last decade, stork nests on electricity pylons and industrial stacks have become an increasingly common sight. Consequently, many power plants decide to install special platforms on their low-voltage poles so that the nest base is located at a safe distance from the cables. There are even producers of ready-made stork platforms. The most unusual locations of stork nests are church roofs, fire-station towers, observation platforms for hunters, haystacks and even wayside crosses.
White storks occur almost anywhere in the country except for the higher parts of the Carpathians, Sudetes and the Swietokrzyskie Mountains. Most nests are situated in the vast valleys of the main rivers: the Vistula, Odra, Warta, Notec, Pilica, Biebrza and Narew, which provide diversified food. Almost 25 percent of the population live in the north-eastern part of the country. Recently Warmia has become a region with the highest density of storks in Central Europe.

FLORA

A COUNTRY OF FORESTS AND MEADOWS

Poland boasts the greatest plant diversity and wealth of forest biocoenoses in Central Europe. This is mainly due to its lowland location and moderate, transitory climate.

Diversity of plants
The composition of Poland's contemporary flora is a result of climatic changes and the diffusion of species in the postglacial period. There are over 2300 species of vascular plants, about 600 mosses, 250 liverworts, and 1600 lichens.
Since there are no natural barriers in the east and west that might hinder plant and animal migrations, most vascular plants in Poland are transitory species. They account for about 60 percent of the entire flora and include trees such as the common oak, black alder, common elm, European white elm, white willow and small-leaved lime.
Most vascular plants are species typical of various geographical areas. You can find here Euroasian and North American plants such as the red bilberry; Arctic and boreal such as the dwarf birch; Central European such as the fir, beech and many others; West European such as the heath; Black Sea and Hungarian such as the dwarf cherry and the yellow blooming spring adonis, common for dry meadows on limestone. There are few Mediterranean species, though.
For about 40 percent of species, Poland is the limit of occurrence. It is the northern limit for the broad-leaved lime, European larch and black poplar; the eastern and north-eastern limit for Atlantic and sub-Atlantic plants such as the beech, sycamore, field maple, sessile oak and crossed-leaved heath, characteristic of the Baltic coastland; the southern limit for the Swedish whitebeam, found only in the belt of coastal lowlands, and rare northern plants such as the dward birch and Lapland willow. For about 10 percent of species, Poland is the western limit.
Poland has few endemic species, found largely in the Carpathians, where they include the Poa nobilis and Euphrasia tatrae. Indigenous to the Babia Gora area is the laserwort (Laserpitium archangelica), found near the tree line and reaching up to two metres. In the Pieniny you can see the unique Chrysanthemum zawadzkii. In the Sudetes, only the Karkonosze range has some endemic violets and saxifrages.
In the rest of the country, there are about 15 endemic species and subspecies including the Polish larch, black birch and Ojcow birch. Some endemic species and species found only locally, outside their normal range, are relicts (survivors from distant epochs). These include the violet larkspur, Dianthus sylvestris, Saxifraga wahlenbergii, Lapland willow and dwarf birch. The best known relict species is the beautiful Arolla pine, found only in the Tatras. The Pontic azalea is an example of a steppe relict.
Carrs that often cover marshlands, valley edges and lake shores are dominated by the black alder. The undergrowth in shady carrs, taking advantage of the abundance of water, rise up to several metres. This is also the place to see the royal fern, Poland's biggest fern. Riverside carrs are rare, found in the Masurian Lake District and the valleys of the greatest rivers: the Vistula, Odra and Warta.
Unique and scientifically priceless is the Biebrza marshland, the largest swathe of land in lowland Europe west of the Bug River, that has survived almost untouched by civilization. The area abounds in plant species typical of north Europe and relicts from the Ice Age, including a variety of sedges. The unusual landscape of this area is shaped by the Biebrza, the only European river that has retained its natural character for the entire length. Its valley consists of three marshland basins separated by bottlenecks. Low gradient and a levee produced by the Narew, which is fed by the Biebrza, make the river flow very slowly. It meanders and in early spring floods over a several-kilometre-wide area, sometimes returning to its channel only by late summer. The vast flood plain is dotted only with sparse knolls, clumps of bushes, trees and haystacks sticking out of water. The most diversified central basin contains the Czerwone Bagno (Red Swamp), one of Poland's most extensive transitional peat swamps, covered with a century-old marshy coniferous forest. At its edge, the only marshy birch forests in the country stretch. The northern basin sees smaller floods and is the habitat of many rare plants. In the southern basin, the Biebrza meanders widely and its flow is the slowest.

Coniferous, broadleaved and mixed
In the past, Poland's landscape was dominated by vast forests; today they cover only about 28 percent of the country's territory, usually with their species composition changed over centuries. The most extensive woodlands are in the Carpathians, the Sudetes and the lakeland belt. The least wooded region is central Poland. The old Mazovian forests have survived only in small patches on barren dunes and marshes.
Originally, Polish woods were dominated by broadleaved species: willows and poplars in river valleys, alders on swamps, and mixed forests dominated by oaks, hornbeams and limes in other parts of the country. In some regions these dry-ground forests may also feature beeches, spruces and sycamores. This diversity of tree species supports rich wildlife.
Post-war afforestation consisted mainly in planting conifers. Poor, sandy soils, unsuitable for cereal crops, were afforested with pines which now cover 57,000 sq km, compared with just 3,300 sq km of beeches and 2,000 sq km of firs. Conifers have low resistance to pollution and, especially in one-species forests, pests.
Over the last 20 years the total area of Poland's forests has remained roughly the same. Two positive trends are the increasing share of broadleaved trees and the growing area of relatively old forests.
Most forests are coniferous, with a predominance of pines (about 70 percent) and spruces. The pine can grow on various soils and in extremely varied water conditions. It also has great endurance to weather. It appeared in this part of Europe after the Ice Age and has survived all climatic changes; only in the mountains was it surpassed by the spruce, fir and beech. Pine forests have a characteristic undergrowth with berry bushes, junipers and a profusion of mosses and lichens. The spruce, which is very tolerant of harsh climate, may be found chiefly in the mountains and the north-east where it makes dense forests with the undergrowth often limited to mosses, ferns and berry bushes.
Coniferous forests account for about 70 percent of Poland's woods. The largest of them are: the Puszcza Augustowska (Augustow Forest), Puszcza Piska (Pisz Forest), Puszcza Notecka (Notec Forest), Bory Tucholskie (Tuchola Forest) and Bory Dolnoslaskie (Lower Silesia Forest). In some areas, patches of mixed forests have survived. In the lakelands, these are dominated by the beech, while the larch is the prevailing tree in the mountains.
Better soil supports broadleaved forests, mainly with trees such as oaks and hornbeams or beeches. A good example of an oak-hornbeam forest can be found in Bialowieza and Kampinos. In the Swietokrzyskie Mountains you can see fir-beech forests.
Forests with beeches occur in lower mountains, in the Pomeranian Lake District, western part of the Masurian Lake District, the Lublin Upland and in the Bieszczady. The finest beech forests are the Lasy Kadynskie (Kadyny Forest) near Elblag and the Puszcza Bukowa (Beech Forest) near Szczecin.
Beech and oak-hornbeam forests look particularly attractive in the spring when most plants bloom. As they have to produce seeds before the trees shoot out leaves and obscure the sun, as soon as it becomes warm and sunny, the forest bottom virtually explodes with life. Colourful anemones, violets and liverworts all spring up at the same time.
A true gem in west Poland is the Puszcza Piaskowa (Piasek Forest), situated in the Odra valley near Cedynia and at the western fringes of the Mysliborz Lake District. Named after the village of Piasek, it is a vestige of the ancient woods that once stretched along the Odra. More than half of its trees are broadleaved species including 250-300 years old oaks, with some of them living up to 350-400 years. What makes its flora unique is also thermophilous grasses and shrubs.

Poland's most valuable forest
Poland boasts the last patch of the primeval forest that covered most European lowlands a thousand years ago. This is the Bialowieza Forest (Puszcza Bialowieska), straddling the border of Poland and Belarus, on the Bielska Plain, between the Narewka and Lesna rivers, the latter being a tributary of the Bug. Its Polish part covers about 580 sq km.
Some 500 years ago Polish kings banned logging and settling in this area to preserve it as hunting grounds. Although the forest was periodically exploited in the 19th century and in the inter-war period, it has retained its character of a primeval lowland forest, which is unique in Europe.
In 1921 the most valuable part of the forest was put under protection and designated a strict natural reserve. Three years later it was transformed into a national park, the oldest of the 23 national parks in Poland. It encompasses about 15 percent of the forest's area. In 1977 the Bialowieza National Park became a World Biosphere Reserve and two years later it was recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. It is the only site in Poland that has entered both lists. In Europe, only one more national park, Montenegro's Durmitor, is also listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. For this reason, both parks are regarded as "Yellowstones of Europe". The Bialowieza National Park has also received the European Diploma, awarded by the Council of Europe to the continent's outstanding natural sites.
Two-thirds of the most valuable patch of the forest are covered by broadleaved trees, mainly oaks and hornbeams. Carrs and marshy meadows in wet areas, flooded for several months a year, are dominated by the black alder and ash. Pine, spruce and mixed forests stretch on dry grounds. Depending on the soil, there are altogether as many as about 20 types of forest, supplemented by marshes, peat bogs and numerous streams.
Species diversity of dry-ground woods attests to the primeval nature of the Bialowieza forest. The tallest trees are spruces. Below you can see the crowns of oaks, limes and maples that make up the proper forest canopy. The lowest trees are ashes. Ancient giants grow side by side with saplings shooting up between old trunks that fell to the ground and left them some room and access to the sun's rays. Decaying trees are distinctive feature of the park. They account for over 10 percent of the entire stand within the strict reserve. The organic matter produced during their decomposition is used by the new generations of plants.
For 80 years virtually no work has been conducted in the strictly protected area. The average age of its trees is 126 years, compared with 72 years in the rest of the forest and 54 years in Poland. Almost 1600 trees have reached a size that qualifies them as nature monuments.
The Bialowieza Forest is the southern and western limit for many boreal plant and animal species, characteristic of the taiga. There are 8500 species of insects, 250 birds, 54 mammals, over 1000 species of vascular plants, 200 mosses and about 300 lichens. Particularly numerous are the fungi (some 3000 species), which are largely relicts of the primeval forest and tend to grow on decaying trees.

Rustling firs
Apart from the Bialowieza Forest, a few other woods have survived in the north-eastern part of Poland as remnants of the vast forests that once extended over the borderlands of medieval Prussia, Lithuania and Poland. The largest of them, north of Bialowieza, are the Augustow Forest (Puszcza Augustowska; 1140 sq km), which, through natural restocking, has become a true wilderness; and the Knyszyn Forest (Puszcza Knyszynska; 839 sq km), with natural pine and pine-spruce stands and peatland vegetation.
Stretching across the Russian border, the Romincka Forest is dominated by spruces, typical of northern areas. The forest is noted for its clumps of the protected ostrich ferns. East of Lake Goldap stretches a scenic raised bog with spruces and alders.
In the Pomeranian Lake District, the most extensive wood is the Tuchola Forest (Bory Tucholskie; about 1200 sq km). Exploited for centuries, it has retained little of its original character and is now dominated by man-introduced pine monocultures. One enclave of primeval vegetation is the Wierzchlas yew reserve. This concentration of yews, Poland's biggest, comprises a fragment of the ancient Pomeranian Forest with some four thousand trees aged up to 600 years. Remnants of the primeval mixed forest are woods with a predominance of pines interspersed with wild serviceberries (protected). There are also many glacial relicts including the shrubby birch and twin flower.
Assemblages of aquatic vegetation are of great value. Lobelia lakes, extremely rare in Poland and Europe, are named after the water lobelia, which has white, tiny (up to 1cm) flowers rising above crystal-clean water. This plant requires clean and soft water with free carbon dioxide. Lobelias are usually accompanied by other plant species, equally rare in the country. Only 150 lobelia lakes have survived in Poland, almost all of them situated in the Pomeranian Lake District.
The Tuchola Forest abounds in assemblages of rare peatland and wetland vegetation. On the so-called dystrophic lakes (which exist in coniferous woods with vegetation adapted to acidic waters), peculiar skins of peatmosses and marsh teas occur, which sag under your feet.
In the Malopolska Upland, larger forest expanses can be found in the Swietokrzyskie Mountains, where you can relax under the rustling firs in the magnificent Swietokrzyska Forest, also knows as the Fir Forest (Puszcza Jodlowa). Natural stands cover about 63 percent of its area. Diversified geology results in a variety of habitats which support almost all tree species that occur in Poland: firs, beeches, two oak varieties, spruces, two lime varieties, yews and pines. Rare plants in the forest include a number of orchids, the marsh gentian and globe flower. Among the lush vegetation you can find raspberries, blackberries, large swathes of impressive ferns and impassable thickets of young firs or beeches.
The Swietokrzyska Forest is the cradle of the Polish yew. Gora Chelmowa near Nowa Slupia has Poland's largest concentration of this tree, which lives in its natural state only in this part of the country. The biggest and oldest yews in this place exceed five metres in circumference.
East of the Malopolska Upland, fine fir-beech stands have survived in Roztocze, an undulating upland cut by many gorges. Vast wooded stretches can be found in the Carpathian Depression; the largest of them is the Sol Forest (Puszcza Solska; 1240 sq km) east of the San valley. Relatively extensive woods occur in the Silesian Lowland. The biggest of them, and the biggest in Poland, is the Bory Dolnoslaskie (Lower Silesia Forest; over 1500 sq km) on sandy alluvial cones of Sudetian rivers. Most of the forest, however, is made up of pine plantations, with rather limited flora and fauna.
The West Carpathians are well wooded only in some parts, notably in the Beskid Slaski, Beskid Zywiecki and Beskid Sadecki. The Bieszczady retains its thick forest coat. The Sudetian forests were substantially destroyed at the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s. In the Karkonosze and the Izerskie Mountains, acid rains killed trees over vast areas. The disaster was caused by a particular pattern of winds which brought air pollution from nearby brown-coal power plants in Poland, Germany and Czechoslovakia. Weakened by the rains, the trees fell victim to pests which completed the work of destruction. Today, attempts are being made to re-create the natural spruce-fir, beech and spruce forests in the disaster area.
Poland's meadows are predominantly man-made creations that usually replaced the felled forests. The broad valleys of the Biebrza and Narew, cut by ice-marginal streams, and the Lubuskie Lake District contain marshland meadows. Perhaps the most spectacular are the meadows in the Bieszczady - known as poloniny - and in the Tatras, where they are called hale. In spring they cover with thousands of blooming crocuses, indigenous to the Carpathians and brought here from the Balkans by wandering shepherds whose sheep spread the seeds that got into their wool.

Vegetation belts
As you go up above sea level, the climate changes gradually and so does the plant cover. The highest mountains in Poland, the Tatras, have as many as five distinct vegetation belts. The most extensive of them is the lower regiel (up to 1250m) with predominantly man-planted spruce forests. The upper regiel (up to 1500m) is dominated by spruce forests that have largely retained their original character. Near its upper limit you can see the European larch, mountain ash, Silesian willow, Carpathian birch and - covering steep slopes - spruce cliff forests. Another characteristic species is the Arolla pine, the queen of the Tatra forests, distinguished by a widely rounded crown and dark green needles. Native to the Altai Mountains, it came to Poland during the Ice Age.

Above the upper regiel is the belt of dwarf mountain pines (1500-1800m) whose dense scrub may be up to three metres high. Their tough, strong branches fill up the spaces between rocks and trail over stones, their flexibility making them resistant to avalanches. Dwarf mountain pines play a major role in protecting the forests by entrapping falling rocks, slowing down flash floods and preventing erosion. As you go up, the scrub becomes lower and lower. In the upper parts of this belt, it is less than a metre high.
In terms of unique nature, the most valuable are the two uppermost zones: alpine pastures (1800-2250m), known as hale, and rock towers (subnival zone) which in Poland can be found only in the Tatras. Of the 430 mountain plants that occur in the country, the Tatras have as many as 400, and half of this number live mainly in the alpine pastures and the subnival zone. The latter contains over 100 species of flowering plants including the pink-blooming catchfly which grows on rocks in moss-like cushions capable of resisting strong winds. There are also many species of saxifrages, mosses and rock lichens. The Tatras are noted for a profusion of lichens, the highest in the country (about 700 species).
The Tatras also have the biggest number of endemic plants in Poland and a variety of relicts. The best known endemic species are the Saxifraga wahlenbergii, Cochlearia tatrae, larkspur (with beautiful violet, jug-shaped flowers), Poa granitica and Poa nobilis. Tens of species are endemic to the Carpathians.
Similar vegetation belts can be identified in the Karkonosze, the highest range in the Sudetes. Natural beech and mixed forests of the lower regiel (500-1000m) have been largely replaced by man-planted spruce monocultures. The upper regiel (up to 1250m) is a zone of spruce forests with some sycamores and mountain ashes, their undergrowth made up of heathers and grasses. In more humid areas you can find luxuriant herbs. Above there is the belt of dwarf mountain pines (1250-1450m) which occur in the Sudetes only in the Karkonosze range and the Snieznik Massif (1425m).
The flattened peak areas contain high-mountain peat bogs. The best known of them stretches below Mt Sniezka (1602m) in the Karkonosze, where dwarf mountain pines harbour tiny pools with marshland plants which are glacial relicts typical of the tundra. Around the pools, Lapland willows make up a dense thicket. Because of its landscape and characteristic flora, the ridge known as Rownia pod Sniezka is sometimes called the Karkonosze tundra. The alpine belt (above 1500m) is dominated by rock vegetation: grasses, mosses and lichens. Generally, the Karkonosze has rather poor plant cover, for which the granite bedrock is responsible. There are a few endemic species including Saxifraga moschata subs. basaltica and Sorubs sudetica as well as glacial relicts such as Saxifraga nivalis and the semiparasitic Pedicularis sudetica which takes water with mineral salts from other plants. Outside the Karkonosze, you can see in only in the Arctic.
The Bieszczady has a peculiar arrangement of vegetation. The range's distinctive feature is a low tree line (1200-1220m above sea level) and lack of the upper forest zone with spruces. The limit is marked only by dwarf beeches and alders which give way to pastures know as poloniny, the biggest attraction of the Bieszczady. These reach up to 1346m, which is the height of the highest mount, Tarnica. The meadows are covered with bilberry bushes and grasses. Only there can you find over 20 rare East Carpathian species such as the Silene dubia and Melampyrum saxosum, as well as over 70 high-mountain species.
The Bieszczady is one of the few places in Europe where nature has regained terrains once colonized by man. After the war almost all native residents were deported for political reasons and their mountainside fields and meadows are now replaced by a dense beech forest which retains the natural character of beech woods.


FAUNA

As Poland's flora evolved, so did its wildlife, undergoing similar changes. The country's fauna is made up of species that arrived in various epochs, starting from the last glaciation. The number of animal species greatly exceeds that of plants.
There are about 33,000 animal species in Poland, including invertebrates. Among the vertebrates, there are 85 species of mammals, 220 species of nesting birds, 8 reptiles, 17 amphibians, and 55 fish species.
Most are animals that spread easily and quickly, living all across the temperate zone in Eurasia, such as the tench and carp, common toad, slow-worm and grass snake, chaffinch, mallard and goshawk, red squirrel, brown hare, roe deer and red deer, all typical of the zone of broadleaved and mixed forests.
There are 36 endemic and 38 relict species. Poland is the limit of occurrence for many animals: the southern limit for the snow hare, three-toed woodpecker and nutcracker; the western limit for the thrush nightingale and Eastern European hedgehog; and the eastern limit for the rabbit, which is a western and south-western species.
Climatic differences are responsible for peculiar species pockets in the eastern part of the country. In the north-east (Masuria, the Suwalki region, Knyszyn Forest, Bialowieza Forest) you can see animals characteristic of the tundra and taiga such as the Ural owl, great grey owl, snow hare, elk. In the south-east the fauna of the Black Sea steppes occurs: the hamster, spotted souslik, steppe polecat. Southern and eastern fauna is represented by species such as the bee-eater, lesser kestrel, Aesculapian snake and Helix lutescens, related to the edible snail.

Lords of the forest
The biggest animals in Poland are the European bisons. By the 18th century, the European bison was almost extinct, with only small herds remaining in the Bialowieza Forest and the Caucasus. In 1919 the last Bialowieza bison was poached and in 1927 the last Caucasus specimen was killed. The whole population in the world numbered then just about 50 animals in zoos and closed preserves, like the Pszczyna Forest in the Silesian Upland. Out of them, twelve individuals were selected for breeding, started by Polish scientists at a fenced site in Bialowieza.
In 1952, the first inmates were released, but the first calf was born only five years later. Luckily, the bisons began to reproduce quickly. In the early 1970s over 200 animals roamed freely, of which only 38 came from the breeding reserves. The Bialowieza bisons started to be caught and transported to clesed reserves or released in vast forests with a predominance of broadleaved trees. Today these impressive animals can be seen in the Knyszyn Forest, Borki Forest, Niepolomice Forest, Pila Forest and in the Bieszczady where the last Caucasian male was successfully crossed with Bialowieza females. However, the Bieszczady bisons do not reproduce so well as in other places.

Bison females are very caring mothers. A newly-born bison calf weighs about 30kg. Adult males can weigh up to 1000kg and they can eat as much as 60kg of plants a day. In winter, their diet is supplemented with hay by park wardens. European bisons live in herds of about a dozen animals, but in winter they form much larger groups. Only old bulls tend to live solitarily.
At present, some 250 bisons range freely in the Bialowieza Forest, with a similar number in Belarus. The entire population in Poland numbers about 660 animals. The species is now bred in most European countries, as Poland has presented many bisons to them. All European bisons around the world have ancestors from Bialowieza, and this is the only case in history when a species of this size has been saved by regeneration breeding. Today the only danger for their future is close blood relationship, which means low genetic diversity.
In a similar way, other species were reintroduced in Polish reserves. In return for bisons presented to Belarus, Poland was given several elks, which otherwise survived the war only in the Biebrza swamps. Elks are the biggest cervids in the world. In Polish forests, only bisons are bigger. An adult male may weigh over 400kg. Apparently clumsy, elks are perfectly adapted to living in marshlands with willow shrubs and pine thickets. Excellent swimmers, they can find food under water, even diving in search of tasty plants if necessary. Their most surprising trait, though, is a predilection for long wanderings: Polish elks have been seen as far as in the Rheinland!
The beaver is another species that has returned to Polish landscapes. Once very common, as proved by numerous place names deriving from its name (bobr): Bobr, Bobrek, Biebrza, Bobrka etc., in 1945 it numbered only a few animals, all of the Canadian variety brought to Scandinavia. European beavers came to the Suwalki region as they wandered up the rivers that flow from there to Lithuania and Belarus. Also, beavers from a breeding station in Voronezh, Russia, were brought to the Biebrza valley.
These skilful animals are called river architects, and for a good reason. They build dams to lift water and keep it in their lodges which can be up to two metres high and 30 square metres big. With its powerful incisors, an adult beaver can cut down a 30cm-thick aspen in about 15 minutes. Poland's biggest rodents, they live in rivers with riparian forests of willows and poplars. Today their population exceeds ten thousand. Bred in captivity, they are subsequently released. Beavers inhabit a variety of places in the country's lowlands and occasionally in the uplands as well.

Animals of the Polish mountains
An area with exceptionally rich fauna is the Tatras. Mammals living there include the bear, lynx, wolf, otter, badger, deer and roe deer. Birds include the golden eagle, lesser spotted eagle, red kite, northern hobby, buzzard, eagle owl, a few species of owls, black grouse, capercaillie and hazel grouse. The most characteristic species in the Tatras is the chamois. It moves over the steep slopes with great ease, jumping from one rock ledge to another. Chamois resemble common goats, but their grace and elegant way of moving are reminiscent of agile antelopes. They represent the Caprinae subfamily which belongs to even-toed ungulates including such mammals as the roe deer, deer, girafe, antelope and buffalo. Well-developed leg muscles, hoofs with cushioned pads, a heart larger than in other mammals, and low weight all allow the chamois to climb easily even the steepest rocks.
In summer, chamois stay in the alpine zone above the tree line, where they graze on the hale (pastures). In winter, when the weather is harsher, they go down to the two regiels, where they feed on conifer and broadleaved twigs, mosses, lichens and dry grasses. A thick hair coat protects them against sub-zero temperatures. In summer it is brownish-red with a black stripe on the back, while in winter it turns brownish-black to absorb more heat from the sun.
Chamois are most active at dawn and dusk. They give birth to single offspring in May and June. Adult males live a solitary life while females and calves form small herds. In the Polish Tatras, ten such herds have been identified, which occupy the area along the entire main ridge. Four of them are "international" herds living on both the Polish and Slovakian side.
Poland's chamois were taken under protection as early as in 1869. Since 1957, when only 77 animals were spotted, the Tatra National Park has been counting them every year. In late 2001 there were 70 chamois in the park, 25 in the High Tatras and 45 in the West Tatras. On the Slovakian side, they slightly exceed 200. The species is threatened with extinction.
Another symbol of the Tatra National Park is the marmot. These lovely rodents live in high meadows, forming colonies of about a dozen animals. They build elaborate underground burrows, sometimes dozens of metres deep, in which the whole colonies hibernate during winter. The marmot's body temperature drops then to just 4.6-7.6*C, with 2-3 breaths and 10 heart beats per minute.
Marmots feed on grass, herbs and plant roots. When the colony forage for food, one sentinel looks around warily, standing on its hind limbs and warns others with a whistling sound when it senses a danger. This is also an alarm signal for the chamois.
The Tatra marmot is slightly smaller and has brighter hair than the Alpine marmot. Its population was dramatically reduced as a result of hunting. For centuries their tallow was much sought after as a traditional remedy. A few years ago the Bayer Company examined it and found it to have no particular medical properties, yet there are still cases of poaching the marmot. In Poland the animal has been under strict protection since 1869. Today, there are some 200 marmots in the Tatras.
The range is also home to about a dozen brown bears. Their synanthropization is an increasing problem. Keen to experience nature, tourists sometimes act irrationally, provoking wild animals instead of avoiding them. The Park's authorities ask visitors to stay away from the bears, neither to feed them nor leave any food in cars and throw to leftovers only into special containers. Currently about a hundred bears live in Poland, which is as many as in the entire European Union. After the war there were just ten of them.
The largest refuge for big animals in Poland is the Bieszczady. In autumn the mountains see spectacular deer ruts. The stags from the Bieszczady, numbering about 1500, are the biggest in the country an have the most impressive antlers. The vast wilderness also supports some 60 bears, which outside this range and the Tatras can be seen in Poland only in the Babia Gora area in the Beskid Zywiecki. Deceptively ponderous, they move lightly and softly, capable of running up to 65 km/h at short distances.
The uninhabited Bieszczady provides shelter for wolves, once killed off but now under protection. Their population here is Poland's biggest. Wolves mainly live off deer, roe deer and elks. In search of prey, they roam from 10 to even 40 kilometres a day. They play a major role in eliminating weak and sick animals, though in winter they may attack sheep, therefore some local farmers demand that their population be culled.
The Bieszczady is also home to lynxes, wildcats, otters, eagle owls, foxes and a few extremely rare birds of prey such as the golden eagle and peregrine falcon. Particularly impressive are golden eagles, once common in lowland Poland and all across Europe. Today, as a result of intensive logging in the lowlands, they live mainly in mountainous areas. There are only 15 couples of golden eagles in Poland, found chiefly in the Carpathians. Their other nesting area is Masuria.
The golden eagle is up to 90cm long and weighs about 4kg, its wingspan exceeding 2.2m. It has dark brown plumage with a black tail. Only the head and neck are golden. Females are much bigger than males. The eagle hunts mainly medium-sized mammals and birds, grabbing them with its talons and dropping the prey from high above the ground. Then the kill is taken to the nest. The golden eagle also feeds on carrion and may live up to 100 years. When diving through the air, it attains a speed of up to 160 km/h. The bird nests on cliffs and in tall trees, with most pairs having a few nests which they change from time to time. A nest used for many seasons may be two metres wide and 1.5-2 metres high. The female lays two eggs which hatch out after 41-45 days. The eaglets stay in the nest for about 80 days. In Poland, the golden eagle is extremely rare and strictly protected. There are regulations that specify how close to the eagle's nest forestry and farming work can be done.
Poland's national emblem was probably modelled after the white-tailed eagle, the biggest bird of prey in the country, found in the north, mainly in Wolin Island and along the Baltic coast. Like in the case of the golden eagle, not only the species is strictly protected, but its nests as well. The white-tailed eagle is up to 95cm long, weighs up to 6kg and has a wingspan of 250cm. Both males and females have the same plumage: beige head and neck, dark-brown back, wings and abdomen, and white tail. It mainly feeds on fish and water birds like ducks, coots, geese and grebes, often supplementing its diet with carrion. It nests in high trees, on rock ledges or directly on the ground, on islets without any predators.
Poland's smallest eagle is the lesser spotted eagle, whose wingspan may reach about 160cm. It lives in the Beskid Niski, the wildest and most extensive part of the Polish Beskids.

Mysterious bats
West Wielkopolska boasts an underground bat reserve, unique in Europe. Dozens of kilometres of 30-50m deep concrete tunnels built between 1925 and 1941 by Germans provide winter shelter for a few thousand bats a year.
These fascinating though little known animals are the only mammals that can fly. They appeared as early as 55 million years ago and have always lived near human settlements. They don't build any homes but live in caves, tree holows and attics. They sleep during the day and become active at night. To get their bearings, they use ultrasonic echolocation rather than the sense of smell or sight. They are extremely useful animals - one bat can eat several thousand insects a night. Scientists know more than 900 species of bats, of which 21 occur in Poland. The most liked are the species that live near water bodies such as the common pipistrelle, Poland's smallest bat, with a weight of just 5g and a wingspan of about 20cm, which eats some 1000 mosquitoes a night.
Of the 18 bat families, only three European ones can hibernate in winter. Two of this trio - Vespertilionidae and Rhinolophidae - live in Poland and both are insectivorous. When they hibernate, they are totally defenseless. They lower their body temperature almost to that of the surroundings and slow down their vital functions. This allows them to use economically the fat that they accumulated in the autumn and wait until spring comes.
The bat is an unusual hibernator resembling a TV-set left in the stand-by mode. It wakes up as soon as the climatic conditions change. When the temperature exceeds the bat's tolerance range - becoming too low or too high - or when air humidity drops, it moves to a more suitable place. With a high body surface to weight ratio, keeping body moisture at a sufficient level is crucial for survival. A hibernating bat cannot drink, so it has to find a shelter with air humidity close to 100 percent, ideally a cave, which also has a relatively stable microclimate and temperature. This is why most Polish bats live in the Cracow-Czestochowa Upland, which abounds in caves. One of them is even known as the Bat Cave (Jaskinia Nietoperzowa) and the bats living in it include horseshoe bats.
In Poland's climate, bats may hibernate for about 180 days because this is for how long their stored fat reserve will suffice. Five-six months of winter (which for bats means lack of insects) are close to the creatures' physiological limit of hibernation. For this reason, there are hardly any bats living further north.

All bats are protected. Suggestions to protect them were put forward already in the 19th century when it was realized that they feed on forest pests. In 1868 the autonomous parliament of Galicia made the world's first draft of such a bill (which, amusingly, referred to them as birds), but it was never passed. Today bats are under protection in almost all European countries including Poland (since 1952). This was a necessary step as their number dropped dramatically when pesticides began to be widely used against insects, bats' staple food, and when old houses, forests and caves, which always provided them with shelter, were destroyed.
Recently their population in Poland has grown, partly owing to a ban on using some pesticides. This is also a good indicator of an improvement in the condition of the country's environment as these delicate creatures are very sensitive to pollution and observing them may be a kind of environment monitoring.

Typically, bat females give birth to just one young. Pregnancy lasts about eight weeks, but depends on the surrounding temperature. In our climate, a mechanism has evolved to prevent the offspring from being born at a time when there is no food, that is in December. Females form nursery colonies in early May and produce the young by mid June. For the first few days, mother carries the pup with her, but then begins to leave it when she goes hunting. The young is always fed with her milk. Within 6-7 weeks it grows up, learning to fly and hunt. As July passes into August, the colonies disperse. During that time males live solitary lives.

Kingdom of birds - birding in Poland
406 species of birds have been spotted in Poland, including 220 species that nest within its borders. Only one fourth of this number spend the whole year in the country. Some northern species come to Poland for winter, but most migratory birds, notably swans and storks, stay here for summer.
The most common birds found in Poland are the coot, great crested grebe and mallard. Nesting birds that rarely fly off include 21 species of European origin, 14 from the Arctic and 118 from Siberia. Others are southern species which spend the winter sometimes as far away as in south Africa.
A real kingdom of birds is the Biebrza Basin, its wildlife making it one of the most unique areas in Poland. It is Europe's most valuable peatland/marshland and an important wildfowl breeding area on the continent, providing refuge for 263 bird species, including 185 nesting species.
A stunning number of birds can be seen in the Biebrza flood plains both in the breeding season and during the passage periods. In spring and autumn dozens of thousands of geese, ducks, cranes, ruffs and sandpipers rest here en route south. You can hear their fluttering wings, gaggling, quacking and other noises for kilometres away.
For water and mud birds, the valley of the Biebrza is one of the last refuges, as most natural marshlands in Europe have been reclaimed. This area is also home to many birds of prey, which number here a record 25 species. Well represented are birds typical of the taiga and tundra. The valley is their southern or western limit and some of them even make up isolated populations beyond their normal range.
Out of Poland's 56 endangered bird species, as many as 21 nest on the Biebrza. These include the bittern, greater and lesser spotted eagle, dunlin, ruff, great snipe, wood sandpiper, western curlew, little tern, short-eared owl and European roller. Their populations are particularly big, sometimes among the biggest in West and Central Europe. A few populations, like the 2000 breeding pairs of the aquatic warbler, a small singing bird, are believed to be the biggest in the world. The Biebrza valley has over twice as many ruff nests (about 300) as the entire Central Europe (about 140). Not a single nest of the great snipe is known in Central Europe, while about 400 males of that species have been counted on the Biebrza.
One of the greatest attractions for bird watchers is the tooting of the great snipe. The performance starts in the evening and continues until late in the night. A tooting male stands on a sedge clump and does not move for about half an hour, taking air in. Then he lets it out producing a sound that you can hear for hundreds of metres. Finally he flaps his wings and again becomes motionless. This is all to assert his territorial rights.
Even more spectacular tooting is done by the capercaillie, one of the biggest and rarest birds in Poland, living in places like the Sol Forest (Puszcza Solska). Spreading their tails, capercaillies sing a song of four different stanzas. During the last one they lose for a moment their sight sharpness and hearing. Because of hunting, poaching and forest logging, they have become extremely rare, their population estimated at a mere few hundred. The capercaillie lives predominantly in spruce forests, while its relative, the hazel grouse, is found mainly in mountain forests.
One refuge for the capercaillie is the Tuchola Forest, which is also home to many other rare birds such as the black stork, black grouse and cormorant. Another bird haven is Polesie, where you can spot the harrier, western curlew, great snipe, black-tailed godwit, black grouse, short-eared owl and crane. The Masurian lakes provide shelter for the grey heron, grey lag goose, osprey and buzzard. Lake Luknajno in the Great Masurian Lake District, designated a world biosphere reserve, is one of Europe's largest nesting grounds of the mute swan. It also attracts an increasing number of herring gulls, the biggest gulls nesting in Poland. with a wingspan of 1.5m. Thirty years ago the country had just two colonies of these birds; today their number and range have increased substantially.
Huge numbers of migratory birds nest at the confluence of the Warta and Odra rivers. Some 200 bird species live in this national park on permanent basis; half of them nest there, including many water birds whose colonies are particularly big. The local population of the black-headed gull is estimated at some 6,000 nesting pairs, of the coot - at 14,000 pairs, of the mallard - at 2,000 pairs. There are also an impressive 500 cormorant nests. The population of the grey lag goose is the biggest in Central Europe.

Closer to people
Many animals live in man-altered landscapes. Meadows are breeding grounds for birds. Crop fields are home to mice, voles (especially field voles) and hamsters. Partridges are still a relatively common sight. Country and town buildings provide shelter for the house mouse, house sparrow and swift, an excellent flier able to reach a speed of about 170 km/h and resembling the swallow. Swifts are the third most numerous group of birds living in Warsaw (after pigeons and sparrows) despite the fact that they come from rocky terrains.
At country houses you can often see swallow nests. Swallows build them from clay mixed with saliva. House martins stick their semicircular nests to house walls, while barn swallows prefer farm buildings like stables and their nests have elaborate entrances.
Some species have changed their habits and moved closer to people's houses only recently. Birds characteristic of forests colonized towns: the starling did it at the turn of the 20th century and the blackbird in the mid 20th century, followed by the magpie. Similar tendencies are observed in the case of the wood pigeon, kestrel and crow. In 1943 the collared turtle dove came to Poland; since about 1920 it had been spreading north-west from the European part of Turkey, always settling in towns. In urban parks, swans have become a common sight, more and more frequently joined by woodpeckers, flycatchers and thrushes, once found only in forests. Mountain wagtails now feel at home in Warsaw, where their breeding grounds change as the underground construction proceeds. The latest newcomers in the urban landscape are gulls. Their nests appear on roofs in such cities as Kolobrzeg and Slupsk.
Many species have been brought to Poland by man. These include escapees from fur animal farms such as the muskrat, which came to the country via Czechoslovakia in the late 1920s, American mink and raccoon dog. Other species have been deliberately brought and acclimatized as game animals: partridges, mouflons (sheep ancestors, living now in the Sudetes and the Swietokrzyskie Mountains), fallow deer and sika deer.

Rivers, lakes and the sea
Poland's big rivers are too polluted to harbour much wildlife. The short rivers of Pomerania and Masuria as well as many mountain streams are home to the trout and spawning grounds for the sea trout, a migratory variety of the salmon. To protect the fish, the entire 200km-long Drweca River and the slightly shorter Pasleka have been designated a nature reserve. The Drawa, cutting across Pomerania's forests and one of the cleanest rivers in the country, is a spawning ground for the salmon.
Fish commonly seen in clean waters are the bleak and roach, one of the best known fish species in Poland, found everywhere except for fast-flowing mountain streams. Other abundant species are the tench, carp, perch, pike, eel, bream and crucian carp, which prefers shallow and warm lower courses of rivers. Related to the perch, pike perch may weigh up to 10kg and occasionally even more. The crucian carp is resistant to pollution and recently the sheatfish has also appeared. It is one of the biggest fresh-water species in Europe - if you're lucky, you can catch crucian carps that weigh up to 30kg. Middle rivers are home to the barbel. As it needs clean water and relatively swift current, it is rather rare in Poland.
Clean, deep lakes rich in oxygen teem with pike perch, powan and whitefish. Whitefish feed on plankton which they catch while swimming just below water surface. When a lake becomes more abundant in food, they are surpassed by other fish species. The cool lakes in north-east Poland are ideal for the burbot and thunderfish. The only naturally fished Tatra lake is Morskie Oko, where you can see trout.
The Baltic Sea has little fauna due to its low salinity. Baltic water is five times less salty than in the North Sea and Atlantic. This is why you'll find in it no common marine creatures such as echinoderms and cephalopods, while snails and mussels are represented by just a few species. There is only one common jellyfish species. Baltic mussels and jellyfish are half the size of their relatives in the North Sea.
One glacial relict common in the Baltic Sea is the Mesidotea entomon, a millipede-like crustacean. The most abundant fish species are the herring and cod. Other commonly caught species are the sprat, a few kinds of flatfish and salmon. Grey seals, once often seen in the Gulf of Gdansk, today occur mainly in the northern part of the Baltic. Along the Polish coast they appear only occasionally, as do sea seals, ringed seals and porpoises. Whales and other big cetaceans are an extremely rare sight in the Baltic. This is caused by scarce food, shallow sea and problems with passing through the Danish Straits that close the sea.

SOURCE:www.poland.gov.pl