Have you herd? Bison coming back to Britain
Forget Wild West... try woodlands closer to home!
IN BRITAIN, you’re not likely to spot a bison unless you’re scanning the background while watching a Western.
But that’s about to change – for a quartet of the creatures are coming to Kent.
As well as roaming the American plains, bison used to happily graze on our grass, too.
By 1927 they were extinct in the European wild, however, with just 54 left in captivity thanks to hunters and disappearing habitats.
The species found an unlikely new home. The exclusion zone set up after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster became a wildlife reserve, where bison could breed and thrive.
Now the European bison is about to make a comeback in Britain. Although they are thought to have grazed here more than a thousand years ago, no bison bones have ever been found under our soil.
They have, however, turned up under the North Sea from nearly 12,000 years ago on Doggerland, the land bridge that connected the UK to Europe.
Up to 6ft 9ins tall and weighing nearly a ton, bison are the largest surviving land mammal in Europe and their reintroduction to the UK comes thanks to a People’s Postcode Lottery Dream Fund award of £1,125,000. Kent Wildlife Trust and the Wildwood Trust will use the money on a ‘wilding’ project and will breed bison at Blean Woods, near Canterbury.
A herd of four will live in a fenced enclosure away from footpaths and within a 1,200acre area used by other grazing animals. Bison are known as ‘ecosystem engineers’ because they improve habitats. They push over trees by rubbing against them and eat the bark, creating more space.
Kent Wildlife Trust says barkstripping will create standing deadwood that benefits fungi and insects such as stag beetles. Patches of bare earth created by the bison ‘dust bathing’ will be good for lizards, wasps and rare arable weeds.
Despite their size, bison are peaceful and not a threat to humans – although they do not like dogs.
Asked what would happen if a bison escaped, the Woodland Trust said boundary fences would be strong and rangers would ensure public safety.
Laura Chow, of the People’s Postcode Lottery, said: ‘The introduction of these extraordinary animals to British woodlands will be a hugely significant moment.’
Paul Whitfield of the Wildwood Trust said the project partners had ‘long dreamt of restoring the true wild woodlands that have been missing from England for too long’.