Fota-raised bison to be released into wild in UK

Fota Wildlife Park director Sean McKeown said the park is delighted to be involved in the reintroduction of the animals into the wild in England.

Sean Fota Park Wildlife Picture: Mckeown Minihane Director Denis

The animals should have been shipped there earlier, but the move was held up due to Brexit issues.

Mr McKeown said the wildlife park has been reintroducing bison into the wild since around 2007, when they first sent some to Poland.

In the interim it has also sent them to Romania and Northern Spain, and in September will be sending a female bison to Azerbaijan.

The bison are 'ecosystem engineers', which means they will restore life to the woodland through their natural behaviours and offer a nature-based solution to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises.

This is the first time in thousands of years that wild bison have roamed in UK woodlands, as part of a landmark experiment to test this nature-based solution to habitat management as well as the climate and nature crises.

Kent Wildlife Trust chief executive Evan Bowen-Jones said: “The restoration of naturally functioning ecosystems is a vital and inexpensive tool in tackling the climate crisis.

The bison will help to create climate-resistant landscapes which can adapt to the challenges presented by the crisis we face.

“We want Wilder Blean to mark the beginning of a new era for conservation in the UK. We need to revolutionise the way we restore natural landscapes, relying less on human intervention and more on natural engineers like bison, boar, and beaver.

The bison will soon be joined by other grazing animals, including Exmoor ponies, Iron Age pigs, and Longhorn cattle, whose natural behaviours compliment the bison and will help to manage the landscape without the need for human intervention.

Their impact on biodiversity and the landscape will be closely monitored in a long-term survey programme led by Kent Wildlife Trust.

Wildwood Trust director general Paul Whitfield said: “Today heralds a new dawn for conservation and the fight against climate change.

"As well as helping the biodiversity crisis, one of the fantastic things about this groundbreaking project is that it’s going to demonstrate the very real impact nature-based solutions can have in solving the climate crisis.

"The two are intrinsically linked and we can’t solve one without the other.

With this project, we’re going to prove the impact bison in the wild can have on the environment.

"They will create an explosion of biodiversity and build habitat resilience; locking in carbon to help reduce global temperature rise.

"This will act as a huge catalyst for change, with the project being replicated on scale across the country. It will make a phenomenal difference.

"It's great news in these worrying times."