Between 1987 and 1992, I conducted regular studies on otters at the Vilija-Minsk water supply canal. The research primarily focused on assessing the otters’ diet within this artificial habitat and analyzing their distribution along the canal and its surroundings. However, the study was not completed as initially planned. Since last autumn, I have resumed my ..read more

The Zadrach research station was established in 1995 with the purchase of a modest peasant house (the brown one). It is located in the Zadrach hamlet, Haradok district, Vitebsk region, in northeastern Belarus. A second house (the green house) was constructed in 1996, and both were adapted for living quarters and wildlife research. Nestled within ..read more

Co-author Irina Rotenko Over two decades ago, for the first time, I encountered a lynx family’s tracks showing that the mother had very small kittens in mid-December. The kittens’ footprints were almost half the size of a typical kitten’s at this time of year. A few years later, I observed this phenomenon again. Once later ..read more

Recently, another former lynx den was discovered, which was active in the months of June and July. The den was a cavity nestled under the roots of large black alders. The presence of lynx hair suggested that just lynx family had recently used it for sheltered denning. This den was located in a stretch of ..read more

Dear Friends, Followers, and Supporters, We have an important update regarding our donation platform. Starting November 1, 2024, we will no longer be able to use BuyMeACoffee for receiving donations. This change is beyond our control, and unfortunately, we have not found an alternative platform that we can use. Last Chance to Donate: If you would like to support ..read more

Co-author Irina Rotenko At the start of June, we discovered wolf pup tracks alongside numerous lynx footprints nestled between the root plates of two toppled spruces. We installed a camera trap at this location. Following our visit, the wolf pack seemed to have moved elsewhere. The camera trap documented numerically repeated visits by a yearling ..read more

Co-author Irina Rotenko In mid-May 2023, an adult female lynx, whom we refer to as Mikhalina, gave birth within a densely layered treefall spanning approximately three hectares. She had three kittens. The following two photos depict the treefall. In the video positioned below, you can see the Mikhalina den as it was in March 2024 ..read more

Co-author Irina Rotenko Historical Context and Current State of Brown Bears During the Great Lithuanian period, from the 16th to the 18th centuries, brown bears were abundant in the Naliboki Forest and surrounding forest massifs. Reports of hunting these animals frequently appear in the game husbandry documents of the Radziwills and other magnates. Up until the First World War, the brown bear remained a standard game species and a relatively common trophy in the hunting collections of the local elite, indicating a high-density population in the Naliboki Forest. The Budy hunting manor, located ..read more

Co-authors Irina Rotenko and Viktar Kasilovich During the 2024 wolf denning season in Naliboki Forest, we initiated our study in early April and, as of early June, continue to employ camera traps to monitor three wolf families with pups. Our previous research (Sidorovich and Rotenko, 2019, along with several blog posts) indicated that lynxes, brown bears, and bison exhibit aggressive behavior towards wolf breeding. Additionally, red deer and elks have been known to attack wolf dens housing pups and those with roaming young pups. Regarding the aforementioned wild mammals previously identified a ..read more

Coauthor Irina Rotenko The Naliboki Forest, located in the central-western part of Belarus, is home to a dense population of wolves. Recently, brown bears have begun to populate this forested region, prompting an important question: how do these two large predators interact? Specifically, the aggressive interactions between wolves and brown bears, and the influence of their individual traits on these encounters, warrant further investigation. In Europe, observations of brown bears and wolves are mostly limited to man-made feeding stations, with only theoretical speculation available beyond tha ..read more