SS15 wildlife watching: Wild European Bison return to the UK for first time in thousands of years

Monday 18 July 2022

Wild European Bison return to the UK for first time in thousands of years

Back in 2020, I wrote about the ground-breaking "Wilder Blean" project which includes the re-introduction of European Bison to the UK .... see SS15 wildlife watching: Good news! .... wild European Bison to return to UK for first time in 6000 years.

Led by Kent Wildlife Trust and the Wildwood Trust, the “Wilder Blean” project will take place in Blean Woods near Canterbury where it aims to restore the ecosystem of the area’s renowned ancient woodlands.

A major milestone has now been reached. Early this morning, 3 European Bison wandered out of a corral in the Kent countryside to become the first of their kind to roam in the UK for thousands of years.

The Guardian - Wild European Bison return to UK for first time in thousands of years

The aim is for the natural behaviour of the European Bison to transform a dense commercial pine forest into a vibrant natural woodland. Their taste for bark will kill some trees and their bulk will open up trails letting light spill on to the forest floor whilst their love of rolling around in dust baths will create more open ground. All this should allow new plants, insects, lizards, birds and bats to thrive.

The “Wilder Blean” project, near Canterbury, is an experiment to see how well the European Bison can act as a natural “ecosystem engineer” and restore wildlife. The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. A more natural woodland should also absorb more carbon, helping to tackle the climate emergency.

The 3 European Bison released in Kent are an older female from the Highland Wildlife Park in Scotland which will be the matriarch of the herd plus 2 young females from Fota Wildlife Park in Cork in Ireland. They will be joined by a young bull from Germany in mid-August whose arrival has been delayed by import complications related to Brexit.

At first the females will have a 5 hectare double fenced area to explore but this will increase to 50 hectares when the bull arrives. The animals will eventually have access to 200 hectares.

It is expected that the European Bison will eventually breed with the females producing a single calf a year and the “Wilder Blean” site is licensed for up to 10 animals. In future, the “Wilder Blean” project hopes to provide European Bison to found other sites in the UK as well as exchanging animals across Europe.

All 7000 European Bison living in Europe are descended from just 12 zoo animals and the species is still classed as vulnerable so maximising genetic diversity is very important.

I have been fortunate enough to see European Bison on 2 trips to the Białowieża Forest in north east Poland in May 2013 and in January 2019. I managed to get some photos on my first trip but I lost the photos of European Bison in the snow on my second trip due to the memory card being corrupted (I was not happy!). Here are some photos from my first trip to the Białowieża Forest ....