This could lead to the eventual reestablishment of the species in Białowieża Forest and the wider central European lowlands, restoring a diverse array of ecological interactions, while having significant and complex management implications. If the brown bear population in Belarus continues to expand, such visits of bears to eastern Poland are likely to become increasingly frequent in the near future. It is unknown whether this was the same individual. After over half a year of no signs of bears, on the April 1, 2020, a bear was recorded again on the Belarusian side of the forest. The individual apparently left for the Belarusian side of the forest, where a bear continued to be spotted several times over the following month. While carrying out a camera trap study in June 2019, we documented the first brown bear in the Polish part of Białowieża Forest since 1963. In recent years there have been at least two undocumented sightings of bears in eastern Poland, such as in Białowieża Forest in 2010 and Augustów Forest in 2018. Pick any previous in-stock Record of the Month to begin your membership. The nearest population with good connectivity to the Polish lowlands is in central Belarus, where bears are currently expanding. Member Price Non-Member Price -OR- 30 Member Price Join the Club and purchase this item for less VMP members receive our exclusive Records of the Month, early access to limited pressings and discounted pricing on certain titles (like this one). Recently large carnivore populations have been recovering throughout Europe, raising the question of the potential for bears to recolonize both the Polish and wider central European lowlands. Poland typifies this distribution, with bears being present in the Carpathian Mountains, but absent from the lowlands. In Europe brown bears are currently largely confined to mountainous areas and eastern European refugia with sparse human populations.