Do fences or humans inhibit the movements of large mammals in Białowieża primeval forest?

Abstract

One of the last areas in Europe, which supports populations of keystone species, such as European bison Bison bonasus, Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx and wolf Canis lupus, is the Białowieża Primeval Forest (BPF), located on the Polish-Belarussian border. In this chapter, we discuss the costs and benefits of physical and metaphorical barriers, and we demonstrate how these barriers are influencing the spatial organisation and movements of large mammals, namely the European bison, the wolf and the Eurasian lynx, inhabiting the BPF. We found that spatial organisation, movements and activity of the animals are affected by past (habitat fragmentation) or present (management, traffic) human activity even in the area considered to be the best-preserved forest in Europe. These involve a real fence occurring along the state border that is physically impassable for big ungulates as well as virtual barriers in a form of habitat discontinuity that does not permit sufficient number of animals to traverse. Both types of barriers increase mortality of animals on the one hand and decrease the exchange of individuals on the other hand. Therefore, we believe that fencing may have a largely negative impact on large mammals' population viability.