In England, three wild bison were brought to the countryside of Kent County — for the first time in thousands of years, they appeared in the country. The animals will be engaged in the restoration of the forest ecosystem.
This is reported by The Guardian.
The animals were brought in as part of the Wilder Blean project, an experiment designed to find out how well bison can act as natural "ecosystem engineers" and restore wildlife. Great Britain is one of the poorest countries in the world in terms of nature. The goal is for the natural behavior of the animals to transform a dense commercial pine forest into a living natural forest. So, for example, bison will cut down trees, thereby creating space and light, as well as providing dead wood to help other plants and animals. In addition, they will trample paths on new forest floor, and the love of felting will create more open ground. All this should allow new plants, insects, lizards, birds and bats to exist.
Three bison were brought into the area: an older female from a wildlife park in Scotland, who will become the matriarch of the herd, and two young females from an Irish wildlife park. A young bull from Germany will join them in mid-August. The females have already been fitted with tracking collars. This will allow the team to track the animalsʼ movements and obtain information about the plants they interact with. Initially, the females will have five hectares of double-fenced territory to explore, but this will increase to 50 hectares by the time the bull arrives. Eventually, the animals will have access to 200 hectares. Bison-sized tunnels are also being built to allow the animals to safely cross existing footpaths. They are surrounded by two fences, one of which is electric.
Rangers expect the bison to reproduce, with females giving birth to one calf a year, and the site is licensed to hold up to 10 animals. In the future, they hope to provide bison for other sites in the UK, as well as for animal exchanges across Europe.
The bison will soon be joined by other grazing animals, including Exmoor ponies, "Iron Age pigs"; and cattle, whose natural behavior complements the bison in managing the landscape without the need for human intervention. Their impacts will be carefully monitored over the long term, including soil sampling, vegetation structure studies, and monitoring of invertebrates, birds, and mammals.
The bison is the largest land animal on the continent. They became extinct in the wild a hundred years ago, but their population is recovering thanks to reintroduction projects across Europe. All 7,000 bison living in Europe are descended from just 12 zoo animals, and the species is still considered vulnerable, so maximizing genetic diversity is critical.