Simona Kossak completed her degree in Zoology at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków in 1970, with a specialization in psychology and animal ethology (i.e. animal behaviour). Her dream was to settle down in the Bieszczady mountains, in the Hulski Valley, which was still wild at the time. She was promised the position of curator at a yet non-existent museum in a yet non-existent national park. As the matter was being constantly delayed, Simona, an admirer of the Bieszczady mountains (she had been spending her holidays there for the past 10 years) abruptly changed direction, packed her suitcase, and after several hours of train travel, got off in...

Białowieża. It was the middle of winter, 1st February 1971, when she started a job at the Mammal Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences there. She moved into a guest room, yet quietly still had dreams of Bieszczady. But one day, an acquaintance and later good friend, Barbara Ewa Wysmułek, who was a Polish language scholar and wife of a National Park and Palace Park forest ranger, said: "Simona dear, Dziedzinka would appeal to you. Perhaps the place is a bit haunted, but you are quite brave. You must go see this wonderful spot."

'Simona first saw Dziedzinka in moonlight', Ewa Wysmułek remembers:

We decided we would go there at night time. The four of us went down the road with torches: my husband, a hired carter, myself and Simona. >> Janusz R. Kowalczyk, Jul 2015 [Culture] 

As they approached the location of the hut, a large creature cross their path

Simona: It was the first aurochs that I ever saw in my life - I am not counting the ones in the zoo. Well, and this greeting right at the entry into the forest - this monumental aurochs, the whiteness, the snow, the full moon, whitest white everywhere, pretty [...] and the little hut hidden in the little clearing all covered with snow, an abandoned house that no one had lived in for two years. In the middle room, there were no floors; it was generally in ruins. And I looked at this house, all silvered by the moon as it was, romantic, and I said, 'it's finished, it's here or nowhere else!' >> Janusz R. Kowalczyk, Jul 2015 [Culture]

The next day she showed up at the office of the director of Białowieża National Park, as the forest lodge was located within its boundaries, and proceeded to request that it be assigned to her as staff housing. The director at the time, engineer Józef Budzyń, interrogatively eyed the slender girl, who had this whim to commute six kilometres to work winter or summer, of her own free will; he agreed, yet noted that a prominent photographer from Warsaw, Lech Wilczek, was also making efforts to occupy Dziedzinka. On 24th March 1971, on her own name day, Simona moved in. About a fortnight later, her neighbour moved into the second part of the house.

The next day she showed up at the office of the director of Białowieża National Park, as the forest lodge was located within its boundaries, and proceeded to request that it be assigned to her as staff housing. The director at the time, engineer Józef Budzyń, interrogatively eyed the slender girl, who had this whim to commute six kilometres to work winter or summer, of her own free will; he agreed, yet noted that a prominent photographer from Warsaw, Lech Wilczek, was also making efforts to occupy Dziedzinka [Je-jean-yetz]. On 24th March 1971, on her own name day, Simona moved in. About a fortnight later, her neighbour moved into the second part of the house.

Before Simona went to live in Dziedzinka, the house had to be renovated. The employees of the Białowieża National Park repaired the roof, changed the joists, got rid of the fungus, and said that ought to suffice for five years (and indeed it did). After the renovations, Simona started to arrange her part of Dziedzinka. She plastered the walls with wallpaper, washed the windows, placed the sofa and bench, and upholstered the armchairs that were brought over from Kraków.

She brought clocks, decorations, oil lamps and furniture from Kossakówka. And she didn't care when Jacek Wysmułek said to her: 'You won't make a Kossakówka out of Dziedzinka'.

A large tile stove in the old style stood in the corner of Simona's room, and a large table was placed in its middle - it was her workshop study, where she worked by an oil lamp. Her mother, Elżbieta Kossak, would bring books and furniture from Kossakówka when she came to visit.

The road to the cabin wasn't in the greatest shape. For a long time horse and/or horse and carriage was the most common access, but eventually automobiles could make the trek. But for Simona? Well she was known to use Fiat Maluch a little all-terrain car and cross-country skies to move about the forest, but most famously was her 'komar' motorbike.

The roads of the forest were filled with mud and were regularly destroyed by vehicles carrying wood out of the forest, her little 'komar' was the most reliable form of transportation

Simona's neighbor was Lech Wilczek, an author and photographer whose primary passion was nature and its preservation. With similar interests and goals you would think they would've immediately got on. But that was not the case, both thinking the other was full of themselves, but living the same building, they had to tolerate each other's presence 

The Witch of the Wilds

Tomasz Werkowski, a hunter from Białowieża, recalls:

'Once I saw this phenomenon advancing on a komar - wind in the hair, a pilot-cap, rabbit pants, and eye goggles. It passed me by and I had to turn around, because I didn't know what it was. This was in 1974, the very first time that I saw Simona'.

No matter what the season, the komar was her ride. In the winter, she rode her komar to work, with her hands freezing to the handles. Professor Kajetan Perzowski, a colleague of Simona from her university years in Kraków, says 

Once, with a friend, I was going across the Białowieża Forest in a small truck. Suddenly, we see someone pushing through the snowdrifts carrying a motorbike on their back. It was Simona. We packed her together with this motorbike onto our truck. She thanked us later, heating up a big pot of bigos at Dziedzinka.

Simona's mother, Elżbieta, would come and spend the summers with her daughter. For the winter, she would return to the hut in Kossakówka. She had problems with her hip and often required crutches to walk, getting about Dziedzinka was tricky, especially with the outdoor privy. But for this woman, who grew up homesteading, this was true paradise, this was home.

Life on Dziedzinka did resemble an atmosphere of a manor in the summer. There was reading by the light of oil lamps, keeping hens, and with time, also spinning wool. On top of that, the chime clocks from Lech Wilczek's collection resounded every hour.

Simona's love of animals of all kind, naturally led to the property quickly becoming a zoo between animals she rescued, domestic animals she had acquired and the wild critters she had befriended. Early on she had an owl and three buzzards, so when Lech came across four abandoned owl chicks, he brought them over in a basket. This would begin their joint animal menagerie

It only made sense. They both loved the isolation of the ancient forest and the connection it gave them with nature. With Simona's work for the Mammal Research Institute and Lech's wildlife photography and writing it was the perfect place. And both adored their animal companions.

The animals they rescued, weren't captive. The owls would eventually go their own way. The buzzards? When she released them, they came back and would escort Simona to and from the little hut for sometime before finally going their own way. 

Zabka, The Boar

It was a baby boar that would be named Zabka [Froggy] that would bring them together.

Zabka had been found, one-day old and was brought to Lech to care for, he brought the piglet home to Simona's delight and together they would raise the boar. They'd alternate nights, as due to the cold, the piglet had to sleep in their beds and even if one of them had to go away for a reason, someone was always there for the little boar.

Zabka hated being alone, and behaved more like a dog than a boar, following her owners around and she would often steal things from her parents just to make them chase after her. She was also very affectionate and frequently demanded cuddles and chin scratches.

Through this co-parenting, Lech and Simona got to know each other, and eventually to liking each other. They would be together for the rest of their lives.

At dinner, Simona says jokingly: "Lech loves our animals, but I think he likes me a bit too, because I'm the only woman within a range of five kilometres."

"But I have a motorcycle, love, and besides, I have plenty of other women only four kilometres away," retorts Lech. 

Written by Zbigniew Święch [przekroi]

And their hairy love-child? Zabka grew into a massive boar, while I don't have the exact dimensions of Zabka, it's common for adult boars of her species to weigh between 130-220 lbs, with reports of boars that have reached over 400 lbs. Zabka would be with them for 17 years. Despite her size, she's as gentle as can be with her parents, though she can be shy around guests, and will aggressively defend the property from strangers.

Hepunia, The Donkey

On April 1973, Janusz Kocięcki, head of breeding at the Poznań Zoo, came to Dziedzinka and declared: "I'm sure you need a donkey."

And thus they acquired Hepunia. Hepunia was mischievous and loved to travel. She was known for wandering off to the woods sometimes on grand adventures, even attempting to cross into the Soviet Union twice, but the border guards turned her away and called her parents.

Korasek, The Crow

But Zabka was far from the only wild animal Simona befriended. Terror flew on black wings, and his name was Korasek. The corvid was known to terrorize half of the Białowieża area. He stole cigarette cases, hair brushes, scissors, cutters, mouse traps and notepads. He attacked people. He tore up bicycle seats. He stole documents, he stole lumberjacks' sausages in the woods, and made holes in grocery bags. He clung at men's pant legs, pulled at women's skirts, and pricked their legs. People thought that he was some kind of a punishment for their sins. And he was Lech's favorite companion

Stanisław Myśliński, who has scars from the bird to this day, recalls:

He would even steal workers' pay in the woods. He once stole my permit for entering the woods. He pulled it out of my pocket and notoriously tore it apart. He loved to attack people who rode bicycles, especially girls. It was very impressive - he would attack the rider's head with his beak, the person would fall off, and he then would sit on the seat triumphantly, looking the at the spinning wheel. >> Janusz R. Kowalczyk, Jul 2015

Simona's friend says:

Once he stole my car keys. And Lech [Wilczek] said: 'Don't worry, he'll bring them back'. He took a metal rod and scared the crow: 'You sonofabitch, you took keys from a friend?!' He and I said to Korasek that if he brings them back, he'll get an egg, and if he doesn't, he'll get a blow with the rod. And the crow perhaps understood this, because after a moment, he flew up to me, furious, with the keys in his beak and threw them onto a table! >> Janusz R. Kowalczyk, Jul 2015

Bożena Wajda recalls:

Once, I was walking around the reserve without a permit, and the guard saw me, he followed me to Dziedzinka and started to fill in a fine penalty. When he was handing the print to me, the crow appeared. He took the paper in his beak, flew onto the roof of Dziedzinka with it, and tore it up with his leg, on top of that roof. I had such a laughing attack that I couldn't control myself, the guard didn't know what to do, and finally, he just shrugged his shoulders at the whole thing. >> Janusz R. Kowalczyk, Jul 2015 

Before I even make it to the porch, Korasek the crow first pecks at my leg around my ankle and then proceeds to steal a pen from my pocket; fortunately, he is open to bribes and returns it in exchange for an egg

All the lumberjacks and sawmen in the area need to constantly keep an eye on their power saws; otherwise Korasek nicks the screws and spark plug boots and steals their lunches. In spite of it all, people like him  

Written by Zbigniew Święch [przekroi]

The Deer

Other Animals

With time, more animals appeared in Simona's den by the house: a doe who approached the window and ate sugar, a black stork for whom Simona created a nest in a chest in her room, a dachshund and a female lynx that slept in the same bed with Simona, as well as peacocks. Dziedzinka quickly became an experimental laboratory which Simona consequently expanded as a zoo psychologist - with a hospital and a waiting room for sick animals.

Here, she healed, hugged, and observed the animal lot together with Wilczek, who photographed them. Here, as a mother she raised moose twins, Pepsi and Cola, washed the neck of the black stork, took the female rat Kanalia into her sleeve (as the animal panicked in open spaces). She let the befriended doe give birth on the patio, took in lambs with their mother, kept and observed the rats Alfa and Omega, and keep crickets in a glass container. It was here that she checked on the weather by observing bats in the basement. The menagerie grew with each year.

>> Janusz R. Kowalczyk, Jul 2015 [Culture]

Full Source List

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simona_Kossak

• https://culture.pl/en/article/the-extraordinary-life-of-simona-kossak

• https://przekroj.pl/en/culture/a-paradise-called-dziedzinka-zbigniew-swiech 

• https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lech_Wilczek 

• https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/animals/mammals/wild-boar/ 

• https://minskmaz.com/news/joanna-kossak-w-minsku 

• https://www.ibles.pl/-/prof-dr-hab-simona-kossak