Why are wild animals increasingly seen in Minsk?

What I see, I photograph

— Increasingly, photos and videos of wild animals spotted in the capital or on suburban roads can be seen on social media. Recently, hares were filmed on a children's playground in the courtyard of a residential building. What explains the migration of forest inhabitants to such unusual places for them?

— Primarily, it is due to the improvement of the urban environment quality thanks to the development of parks, forest-parks, and green zones, — explains Pavel Veligurov, Senior Researcher at the Laboratory of Population Ecology of Terrestrial Vertebrates and Bioresource Management of the Scientific and Practical Center of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus for Bioresources. — For example, in Minsk, a protected zone was fenced off along the railway so that unauthorized people could not enter. However, the distance between the fence bars turned out to be quite sufficient for medium-sized wild animals. They can freely enter and move along the railway tracks. At the same time, the fence reliably protects them from large forest predators.

As for hares, according to the interlocutor, they have long inhabited the forest-park zones of the capital. Their numbers have barely changed since the beginning of the 21st century. But if in previous years city residents didn't have mobile phones with built-in cameras at hand, now such a gadget is in every passerby's pocket. The ability to instantly capture an encounter with an animal and upload the footage to the internet is the second reason why wild animals are seemingly noticed much more frequently within the city today.

Clumsy Guests from the North

However, the number of bears in Belarus is indeed increasing. Over the past 15 years, the population of these large predators in our forests has grown from 120 individuals to almost 1,300. At the same time, the population distribution across the country is very uneven: about 74% of the clumsy ones are concentrated in the Vitebsk region, approximately 23% in the Minsk region, and only 3% in the Mogilev region.

«Why the population of brown bears is growing in our country, no one knows for sure,» notes the zoologist. «The reasons for this phenomenon are linked to the improvement of natural environmental conditions and a good food base. There are also assumptions that the animals migrate to us from the northern regions of Russia, where their settlement density is traditionally higher. The state border is not closed to animals, so the bears willingly go to free territories in search of more favorable places to set up their dens.»

Павялічыць

Who is waiting for the bus?

Recently, a curious incident caused a stir on social media: near Valozhyn, at a rural bus stop, local residents noticed wild tarpan-like horses. In the published footage, the herd looked as if the animals were deliberately hiding under the canopy from the intense heat.

According to Pavel Veligurov, these unique horses were brought to the Naliboki Landscape Reserve in 2019 as part of an ecological experiment. To prevent the rapid overgrowth of floodplain meadows with aggressive shrubs, biologists decided to use natural grazing by wild herds. And the tarpans are doing an excellent job with their natural task.

However, over time, some of the free-ranging herd migrated beyond the forest and moved closer to a busy highway, which caused the horses to periodically appear on the roadway in the area of the village of Darahun. They were caught and moved back into the forest, to their settlement area.

«In this case, natural processes of wild species dispersal are occurring,» the interlocutor summarizes. «There is currently no need to take special measures to prevent similar incidents.»

The reserve administration keeps the situation under control and closely monitors the herd's movements.

Keep your distance

— What basic safety rules should be followed during an unforeseen encounter with forest guests?

— Animals, finding themselves in an unfamiliar urban environment, experience strong stress, — warns the zoologist. — Predicting their actions in such a state is almost impossible. In addition, wild mammals can be carriers of deadly diseases, including rabies. That is why it is necessary to maintain maximum distance when encountering them.

Remember that forest inhabitants usually fear people themselves and try to hide at the first opportunity. The sooner an animal notices you, the faster it will try to get out of your way. If you encounter a large animal, under no circumstances make sudden movements, do not panic, and try to calmly, without fuss, retreat to a safe distance.

Павялічыць

Useful to gnaw

Beavers within city limits are a special story. Today, their population in Belarus is within optimal numbers, totaling about 52,000 individuals. According to Pavel Veligurov, there is currently very low demand for these rodents among hunters, which is why the animals are found in almost all settlements where there are at least minimal water bodies: a river, stream, lake, or pond. Beavers adapt phenomenally easily to any living conditions. There are known cases where they successfully settled even in treeless areas and built sturdy dams from corn stalks.

«These are strictly territorial animals that aggressively defend their inhabited area from outsiders,» emphasizes the interlocutor. «Young individuals are often forced to colonize new urban water bodies simply because the natural wild areas are already occupied by their kin. Such neighborhood does not always please people. Sometimes, beaver dams cause flooding of dacha plots and roads, and the animals themselves don't mind gnawing on valuable fruit trees in gardens.»

However, there are also positive examples globally of beavers' influence on infrastructure. In the Brdy Landscape Park (Czech Republic), authorities since 2018 could not approve a territory re-wetting project estimated at about 1.2 million dollars. While engineers and officials were mired in bureaucratic approvals for years, beavers, who had come to the drainage canal, independently built a network of dams there in just two nights, completely solving the state's task and saving budget funds.

And this impressive example is not unique. In London, rodents even saved one of the problematic western districts from regular flooding. A family of five beavers was released into the local Paradise Fields park. In less than three years, the animals transformed abandoned streams into a giant natural sponge that retains excess moisture. As a result, in the summer of 2026, during prolonged downpours, the Greenford metro station adjacent to the park did not suffer from flooding for the first time in history. Simultaneously, the ecosystem in the area recovered: fish returned to the flowing water, and the diversity of birds and insects in the park zones increased manifold.

Perhaps it is worth looking into the experience of foreign colleagues and attracting these rodents to combat the flooding of Minsk, which regularly suffers from heavy rains?

• 3
• 0
• 1
• 0
• 1
• 1
• 0
• 0