How is our ward doing at the Oksky Biosphere Reserve

Vostok-Service Group sponsors a Caucasian-Belovezh bison at the Oksky State Nature Biosphere Reserve.

Since April 1, 2023, Vostok-Service Group has been collaborating with the Oksky State Nature Biosphere Reserve to sponsor a bison.

The Oksky Reserve has become one of the places where Caucasian-Belovezh bison have found refuge and protection: they are cared for and studied here, and efforts are made to maintain and increase their numbers and to reintroduce them throughout the European part of Russia.

Our ward is the largest and most beautiful bison named Merkiz. He won our hearts when we visited the reserve to meet its staff and inhabitants and to find out how we could help.

Merkiz is an adult male (9 years old) who leads a breeding group consisting of five females and two calves, Medan and Meruna, who were born this year. Last year’s older calves — Medison, Merzik and Mellori — live in the young-stock enclosure; they are raised by the oldest female bison in the nursery, Mezerka (22 years old).

Our ward is a placid bull by nature. All members of the breeding group obey Merkiz and defer to him in everything.

Bison have certain habits that change with the arrival of autumn and the first cold spells. They have already switched to their winter diet: hay is placed in the feeders, which they eat during the day; every day the reserve staff provide compound feed, to which they have begun adding pumpkin, carrots, apples and potatoes. Until the snow falls, the bison go deeper into the enclosure during the day to feed on remnants of withered grass, fallen acorns and the bark of aspens felled by the wind. Soon they will spend almost all their time at the supplementary feeding area, occasionally walking around the enclosure.

Watch the film «Being Human. Bison» to learn more about bison, the history of their restoration and conservation in the wild, and the role of humans in that process.

Source: Oksky State Nature Biosphere Reserve