The European bison will be introduced to the UK for the first time outside a zoo, in a move that conservationists hope will regenerate ecosystems and help other animals and plants thrive.
Europe鈥檚 largest land mammal was reduced to just 54 individuals in the early 20th century, but reintroductions across continental Europe from the Netherlands to Romania have seen numbers swell to more than 5000. The UK will follow suit in early 2022 with an initial four Bison bonasus set for release in a controlled area of a nature reserve just outside Canterbury.
鈥淲hat is so sad is the UK is more informed about the state of our wildlife than any other country, yet we are so nature-depleted. This is a trial to see: can we do this, can we replicate what we鈥檝e seen work successfully in Europe?鈥� says Laura Gardner at the Wildwood Trust in the UK, which has been awarded 拢1.15 million from the People鈥檚 Postcode Lottery to fund the project.
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Working with Kent Wildlife Trust and several universities, the team at the Wildwood Trust hopes to monitor how the huge grazers break up soil and open up spaces in the woods to bring back complexity to ecosystems. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just about how the bison interact directly with the landscape but the impact of that: what does it mean for soil quality, invertebrate abundance, the number of plant species,鈥� says Gardner.
The animals, which can stand almost 2 metres tall, will be fenced in a 500-hectare area away from footpaths. The project team hopes to assuage any potential concerns from dog-walkers and ramblers by engaging with local people.
Rebecca Wrigley at the UK charity Rewilding Britain, which isn鈥檛 involved in the scheme, says the plans 鈥渃ould be good news for Britain鈥檚 battered biodiversity鈥� and provide people with 鈥渨ilder experiences of nature鈥�.
European bison bones have previously been found on Dogger Bank, a sand bank beneath the North Sea that was once part of a fertile plain connecting the UK to mainland Europe. The species also has genetic roots in the UK, as it emerged as a hybrid from breeding between aurochs and the now extinct steppe bison, which lived in the UK.
