Meet the UK’s New Woodland Rangers: a Herd of Wild Bison
28th July 2022
Rather an unusual story for a publication called WIRED.
Although the European bison belongs to the same family as the domestic cow, you’d never mistake one for the other. Weighing in at up to a tonne, the bison is one beefy bovine. It has its own mannerisms, too: It scratches against tree trunks, rolls on the ground to take dust baths, and wraps its tongue around almost any vegetation—grass, leaves, branches—to feed.
These traits make the bison a dominating force on its surroundings. It can reshape ecosystems, refurbishing existing habitats and laying foundations for new ones. One rewilding project in Kent hopes to harness the bison’s natural engineering abilities in order to better manage the local woodland and increase its biodiversity, by bringing the herbivorous megafauna to the UK for the first time in thousands of years (and possibly ever).
I love the concept of “Iron Age pigs”.