The National Trust has had its most successful breeding year for rare hen harriers in the Peak District for more than a decade. I did not expect it to be so sudden, but literally from the first day you could sense their presence in the woods.’ ‘The bison have already had a remarkable impact. ‘I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the bison and the privilege of spending time with them,’ said Wright. Once the herd are settled, they be joined by other grazing animals including Exmoor ponies, Iron Age pigs and Longhorn cattle, who will also create a variety of natural habitats. Within the next eight weeks a bull from Germany will be released into the herd and it is hoped with time that they will breed. It took just over two years to get to a stage where the herd could be released into the Blean, with the global pandemic and Brexit causing delays to the importation process. Their release was led by the Kent Wildlife Trust and the Wildwood Trust as part of a £1.12 million scheme funded by the People’s Postcode Lottery Dream Fund. ‘To grow, the berries need light, and the bison are beginning to create more light in the woodland already through their natural behaviours, so in a way they are making their own dessert!’ It will be interesting to see her face once the berries start to come through. ‘The calf with one horn seems to have a taste for brambles. ‘The matriarch likes the bracken and can often be seen trampling and even lying down on it,’ he said.
Wright added that, as the bison have settled into their new environment, they have become more intrepid, and their distinctive personalities and tastes have started to emerge. They have been pecking at the bison dung, feasting off insects,’ said Wright. ‘The birds have figured out that bison droppings attract invertebrates.
This results in a lot of droppings – which help to fertilise the earth and disperse seeds. The bison have healthy appetites, eating up to 35kg (77lbs) of vegetation a day. It is hoped that they will change the forest away from a monoculture and create wetter areas that will not only store carbon but reduce flood risk, conservationists hope.
The animals are known as ‘eco-system engineers’, creating muddy ponds, pushing down trees and disturbing the soil to help plants and other animals thrive. They are slightly larger than the American bison, but less heavy and aggressive. More than 55 per cent of mounting tends to be young males with the same gender.Įuropean bison, the continent’s largest land mammal, are the closest living relative to ancient steppe bison that once roamed Britain, conservationists say. Bison have a tendency to show homosexual behaviour.Nazi air force chief Hermann Goering thought of bison as a noble Aryan animal.But 50 remained in zoos, and eventually their offspring led to reintroductions in Poland, Germany and Romania.The last wild bison was shot by poachers on the Poland-Belarus border in 1927.European bison suffered a huge blow when First World War German troops killed 600 in Poland for sport and meat, leaving just a few survivors.
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