Bison Are Roaming Britain Again After Thousands of Years
Britain has welcomed back an old resident, and this one weighs considerably more than your average neighbor.
Bison are roaming parts of the English countryside again, thousands of years after their ancient relatives disappeared from Britain. These enormous animals aren't there to make the woods look a little wilder, either.
Conservationists are putting the bison to work doing something they happen to be very good at: changing the landscape just by living in it.
Bison Returned to Britain in 2022
The story began in 2022, when three European bison were released into West Blean and Thornden Woods near Canterbury, Kent. They became the first free-roaming bison in Britain in thousands of years as part of a joint project between Kent Wildlife Trust and Wildwood Trust.
Later, a male joined the herd, and the bison apparently found their new home rather agreeable. The herd began producing calves, including the first bison conceived and born in the British wild for thousands of years.
Today, the project isn't limited to Kent. Five bison from the original Blean herd have since moved north to Cumbria, where they've established another breeding herd.
Are These Really Britain's Ancient Bison?
Not exactly. European bison are the closest living relatives of the ancient bison that once roamed Britain.
Those earlier animals disappeared thousands of years ago, so conservationists aren't resurrecting an extinct British species.
Instead, they're bringing in a close relative that can perform many of the same jobs its ancient cousins once did. And it turns out, bison are surprisingly accomplished woodland workers.
A 1,500-Pound Gardener Doesn't Need a Rake
Bison are what conservationists call ecosystem engineers. As they wander through the woodland, they:
Graze on vegetation
Strip bark from trees
Trample plants and soil
Rub against trees
Create dusty bathing areas
It may sound like a very large animal making an impressive mess. Ecologically, though, that mess can be extremely helpful.
Stripping bark and damaging trees creates dead wood that provides a fresh habitat for fungi, bats, insects, and woodpeckers. Grazing and trampling can also open up dense areas, allowing more sunlight to reach the forest floor and giving different plants a chance to grow.
In other words, the bison don't need to know they're managing a woodland. They just need to continue behaving like bison.
Britain Is Letting Nature Do the Work
At least, that's a big part of the thinking behind the project. British woodlands have traditionally required a lot of human management.
The bison offer another option by naturally creating a more varied landscape as they eat, walk, rub, and roll their way through it.
They're not working alone, either. At the Blean, Exmoor ponies, Iron-Age pigs, and longhorn cattle have also been introduced to help restore natural processes.
Rather than trying to make every corner of the woodlands neat and tidy, the idea is to give animals more room to shape the habitat themselves. And sometimes, nature prefers a little clutter.
The Bison Experiment Is Getting Bigger
The success of the Kent herd has already helped the project expand. Five former Blean bison are now living at Castletown Estate in Cumbria, where they'll eventually have access to thousands of acres of woodland, wetland, farmland, and coastal habitat.
The animals will remain within enclosed areas, so we're not quite at the point where unsuspecting hikers need to prepare for a bison encounter.
But, the expansion could help conservationists learn whether these giant grazers can restore different types of British landscapes on a larger scale.
An Ancient Job With a Modern Purpose
Bringing bison into Britain may sound like an attempt to recreate a landscape that disappeared thousands of years ago.
But the real goal is much more practical. These animals can do things that machinery and human woodland management struggle to replicate. They knock things over, chew things up, open new spaces, create dead wood, and generally refuse to keep the forest tidy.
All of that disruption creates opportunities for other species. After thousands of years without bison doing the landscaping, parts of Britain are handing the job back to the professionals.
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