The aim is for the natural behavior of the animals to transform a dense commercial pine forest into a living natural forest. Their taste for bark will kill some trees and their bulk will open up paths, letting light spill into the forest, while their love of rolling in dust baths will create more open ground. All of this will allow new plants, insects, lizards, birds and bats to thrive. The Wilder Blean project, near Canterbury, is an experiment to see how well bison can act as natural ‘ecosystem engineers’ and restore wildlife. The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. A more natural forest should also absorb more carbon, helping to tackle the climate crisis. Global warming was evident as the bison were released, with England in the grip of a heatwave and the early timing was to allow the bison to reach the shade of the forest before the temperatures started to rise. The European bison is the continent’s largest land animal – bulls can weigh a ton – and became extinct in the wild a century ago, but are recovering through reintroduction projects across Europe. “Restoring naturally functioning ecosystems is a vital and inexpensive tool to tackle the climate crisis,” said Evan Bowen-Jones, Chief Executive at Kent Wildlife Trust (KWT). “We want Wilder Blean to mark the beginning of a new era for conservation in the UK. We need to revolutionize the way natural landscapes are restored, relying less on human intervention and more on natural engineers like bison, wild boar and beaver.” Paul Whitfield, director general of the Wildwood Trust, said: “Not only that, but we are giving people in the UK – for the first time in a thousand years – the chance to experience bison in the wild. It’s a really powerful, emotional, visceral experience and it’s something we’ve lost in this country.” The three bison are an older female from Highland Wildlife Park in Scotland, who will be the matriarch of the herd, plus two young females from Fota Wildlife Park in Cork, Ireland. “We couldn’t have asked for a better matriarch,” said Donovan Wright, one of two young bison rangers employed on the project. “She’s very, very calm, very confident.” They will be joined by a young bull from Germany in mid-August, whose arrival has been delayed by Brexit-related import complications. The three females were fitted with tracking collars on Sunday, an approach that will allow the team to chart the animals’ movements and gather information about the plants they interact with. Wright said bison are like giant seed banks. “As they move, they pick up seeds and then [are] also scattering seeds along the way.” At first the females will have a double fenced area of five hectares to explore, but this will increase to 50 hectares when the bull arrives. The animals will eventually have access to 200 hectares. Visitors to Blean Woods may be able to catch a glimpse of the bison from trails, the group said. Bison-sized tunnels are also being built to allow the animals to safely cross existing trails. They are contained by two fences, one of which is electric. Bison in other UK wildlife parks are housed in smaller areas and receive supplementary feeding. “I’m looking forward to seeing how the bison start to shape Blean over a five, 10, 20-year period as they settle into their new home and start shedding their weight,” said Tom Gibbs, the other bison ranger. The rangers spent time at the Kraansvlak project in the Netherlands, where people can now walk freely in the area occupied by 14 bison. There was never a dangerous incident. Bison will soon be joined by other grazing animals, including Exmoor ponies, Iron Age pigs and Longhorn cattle, whose natural behaviors compliment bison in managing the landscape without the need for human intervention. Their impact will be closely monitored over the long term, including soil sampling and worm counts, examining vegetation structure and monitoring invertebrates, birds and mammals. “If we can create diverse, dynamic, bio-abundant habitats in our busy corner of the Southeast, why not in our national parks and protected landscapes?” said Paul Hadaway, conservation director at Kent Wildlife Trust. Rangers expect bison to breed, with females producing one calf a year, and the Wilder Blean site is licensed for up to 10 animals. In the future, they hope to provide bison to establish other sites in the UK, as well as trade animals across Europe. All 7,000 bison living in Europe come from just 12 zoo animals and the species is still classified as vulnerable, so maximizing genetic diversity is very important. The £1.1m project was funded by the People’s Postcode Lottery.
