50 bison in front of the house

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Sasha could have moved to the city long ago, as his brothers, sisters and most of his classmates did. But despite the fact that the villages in Pushcha are emptying, he does not want to leave at all. Sasha regularly posts wildlife photos on his Facebook, which many "urban" photographers can envy.

"I don't know of another cooler place in the world than Pushcha. There is nothing interesting in the city. But here, every day is interesting." The Belarusian service of Radio Liberty visited a young photographer from Belovezhskaya Pushcha and found out why he was not going to leave his native place.

Sasha Pekach is 27 years old. He was born in the village of Khvoinik in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, graduated from BSTU with a degree in Forest Management in Minsk, and then began working in the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha". Sasha grew up in the family of a forester, and all his life he was surrounded by hunters. Now he himself goes to the forest to look out for animals, but is armed only with a camera.

Sasha could have moved to the city long ago, as his brothers, sisters and most of his classmates did. But despite the fact that the villages in Pushcha are emptying, he does not want to leave at all. Sasha regularly posts wildlife photos on his Facebook, which many "urban" photographers can envy.

“I don’t know of another cooler place in the world than Pushcha,” says Sasha. “When you leave the house, bison are grazing in the fields or some interesting birds are flying. put in a cage.

We arrived at Sasha's in mid-October, in the midst of a golden autumn. The young man says that this is the best time of the year for a photographer. In the summer, animals have enough food in the forest, so they do not have a great need to come closer to humans. But as soon as the green grass ends, bison, deer and roe deer gradually come out onto the fields.

"One of my favorite periods is morning fogs. Mystical Belovezhskaya Pushcha. I want to show what is behind these fogs. Animals love fog very much - they think they cannot be seen in it," says Sasha.

You don't need to travel far to photograph a bison. Sasha filmed these animals in the forest, and in the swamps, and in the fields. Bison constantly come to the Wild Nikor swamp on the outskirts of the Pushcha. In the same place, in the village of Bely Lesok, Sasha himself lives.

“You can literally walk half a kilometer away from the house,” says Sasha. “One winter in front of my house, about 50 bison came and lay down.”

In the morning, until 8, we go to the same swamp Dikiy Nikor. The sky is not overcast, the fog is weak. Dark silhouettes of bison can be seen right from the "Belovezhskaya ring road" - a high-speed highway running along the border of the Pushcha. Animals hardly react to people, many just lie on the grass. They let themselves be filmed for about 20 minutes, and only then they leave for the forest.

Sasha has been photographing in Pushcha for a long time. Since 2013, he has been working in an environmental project, monitoring camera traps and GPS collars of wolves. But during all this time, he was able to photograph a wolf in nature only once. But that was even when he was just starting to photograph and he did not have a good technique.

He managed to photograph wolves when collars were put on the animals. The last time is this year. But to meet a wolf in nature and have time to get a camera is a great success.

Sasha's friends live in the village of Zalesye near the Dikoe swamp. Nastya Khmel with her husband Sergei Sidoruk and two children moved here from Minsk, they have been living in Pushcha for four years. Their village stands on the very border of the National Park. Besides them, only one person lives here - Baba Valya.

Nastya and Sergei rent out the guest house to tourists. For several years in a row, they have been holding the "Owl Fest" here, arranging film screenings, and this year, for the first time, they organized a weekly psychological course on personal growth in solitude. Sergei previously worked as a psychologist in a kindergarten, Nastya is a musician, sings in the Krywi group, conducts ethnic singing classes in Zalesye and helps to organize holidays in the village kindergarten.

They do not regret their move. Nastya is sure that the village is an ideal place for raising children.

"It is very important for me that there is a view from the window, that there are many trees, that there is space, that there is nature. Minsk as a whole is a green city, but it has begun to deteriorate. And when you raise children, then they will play in this sandbox, where do all the cats in the yard go to the toilet?"

Birds and animals from the Red Book can be found in the vicinity, without even visiting the National Park. But few people know about this. Sasha says that in Belarus there is still no fashion for nature tourism, which has long been formed in the West.

“People at work do not see the wildlife that lives near us,” Sasha says. we have animals and birds. From observing the wild nature you can get new emotions that will remain in the memory for a lifetime."