It is a special day for Tom Gibbs, one of the UK’s first two bison rangers. Four bison have been released this morning in woodland near Canterbury, south-east England, marking the first time the huge herbivores have been introduced to the wild in the UK. This is a major milestone for proponents of rewilding UK landscapes, where wildlife and plant declines aren’t slowing.
“The job just captured my imagination,” says Gibbs when I visit the site ahead of the release. “We don’t have large herbivores roaming freely and grazing: this is exactly the form of [habitat] management we need in this country. And it’s such a charismatic animal.”
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The release of two calves from Ireland, a bull from Germany and a matriarch that was being held in captivity in Scotland was delayed by three months due to paperwork headaches around wild animal imports, as the UK is no longer a member of the European Union.
Now the animals are finally in their 205-hectare site, part of a block of ancient woodland called , they are expected to transform it. Today, much of the landscape is dominated by pine trees from conifer plantations that were grown in the 1970s, as well as fern-rich ground cover. “It’s a monoculture. Nothing much is growing here, and you’ve got a handful of species,” says at Kent Wildlife Trust, the non-profit group leading the bison project.
As Europe’s largest land mammal, the European bison (Bison bonasus) is considered an “ecosystem engineer”. The animals are heavy enough to break up soil to allow vegetation to grow, and they like eating bark, which will eventually kill trees and create standing deadwood, an important habitat for invertebrates. The bison’s habit of rolling around on the ground for a “dust bath” helps burrowing insects too. More insects should in turn attract more birds, including lesser spotted woodpeckers and nightingales, and boost biodiversity. Eventually, the bison’s actions should help transform the habitat into one dominated by silver birch trees, downy birch trees and heather.
Gibbs says the bison will be a “game changer” for habitat management. The shifts will occur more slowly than they would with “intensive” management of the land using machinery such as chainsaws, but he says that is to be expected.
Kunzmann has more than 140 monitoring points to establish a baseline of the species in the area. She will also spend the next five years recording metrics such as how much carbon the soil stores, which will help her measure the effects the bison have on the environment. Their impact will be compared with an empty “control” area, as well as with regions stocked with long-horned cattle.
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The project’s backers hope the small bison herd will breed, with the first calves potentially appearing in the first two years, depending on how they settle. The woods are estimated to have enough food to support about 10 animals. Carefully handling any expansion will be vital, because the species’ genetic diversity is very fragile. It was wiped out in the wild across Europe in 1927 and was only saved by a breeding programme from 54 animals left in zoos.
Successful releases across Europe mean there are now about 6200 bison in the wild; in 2021, the species was . Gibbs’s main goal will be to avoid inbreeding, meaning bulls may be moved to other sites when they reach sexual maturity.
The bison project faces other challenges. A practical one is the network of metal fences that has been erected in the woods to keep people and the bison separate, along with a series of bison tunnels under footpaths that are a public right of way. Though the woods are private land largely owned by the Kent Wildlife Trust, local people have informally become used to being able to walk their dogs off the main paths and in the woods: that is no longer possible.
“My mum doesn’t like it because they’re cutting off the footpaths so we can’t walk through there any more. She doesn’t mind the actual bison,” says 17-year old Ella Kimble from nearby Herne. Kimble welcomes the release, a view echoed by her friend, 17-year old Freya Mcmillan from Blean. “I think it’s cool. They’re good for the ecosystem,” she says.
Most local people żěè¶ĚĘÓƵ spoke to were supportive: 51-year old Justin Grenham from Canterbury hopes it might bring more trade to a nearby pub where he works. One couple drinking at the pub express concern that the animals will effectively be in captivity, despite their large enclosure.
Whether the release counts as a return or an introduction is a matter of academic debate. There is no conclusive archaeological evidence that B. bonasus ever lived in the UK, though its bones have been found on Dogger Bank, the sand bank that once connected the UK to mainland Europe. Researchers behind say the species is a hybrid created by breeding between two extinct species: the aurochs (Bos primigenius) and the steppe bison (Bison priscus), which did live in the UK. One thing does seem likely – if the bison release is a success, the animals will spread across the country.
“We’re hoping this is going to be a trial run for projects like this to happen all over the UK, for people to see that, actually, things like bison can be the nature-based solution that we need in order to restore woodland like this,” says Kunzmann.
