Kent bison 'settling in' to new home in Cumbria
The breeding herd are already "bashing through woodland" in their new habitat, with talk of calves on the way.
A group of bison from a UK-first conservation project in Kent is settling into its new home in Cumbria as part of a scheme to restore wildlife.
The pioneering scheme to raise the bison was initially led by the Wildwood Trust in Bleam, who have since been advising the Cumbria project, and who continue to own the bison.
As bison are currently licensed in the UK under “dangerous wild animals” laws, in the same way as lions and tigers, both sites had to erect large-scale fencing, creating an enclosure of 700 acres which the bison will be able to roam in.
It's something the Wildlife Trusts federation, of which Kent Wildlife Trust is a member, wants to see change for the bison, so that they can live more naturally in large landscape areas.
Toby Mounsey-Heysham, who runs the Cumbria estate, said the bison have “behaved brilliantly” since their arrival.
He added: “What we wanted them to do, and what they are doing, is bash through woodland and open up woodland to create a multi-storey forest.
“We want them to drag seeds out into a broader area and create further woodland in what is currently grassland, we want them to wallow, we want them to produce dung for dung beetles.
“We want them to create a much more diverse, much more interesting, much richer habitat – which is what they’re already doing,”.
The bull bison has pushed over “quite sizeable” trees and the impact of opening up woodland can already be seen with new grasses, flowers and “really diverse, really rich landscape”, he said.
He added:
“We are trying to occupy a place where you use the right land for the right thing.”
Paul Whitfield, Wildwood Trust’s director general, said it was “incredibly encouraging” to see bison from the founding herd at Blean established and thriving in Cumbria.
He said:
“It shows that this approach works and can be adapted and applied in very different landscapes.
“Our role is to support that journey by sharing the knowledge and experience we’ve built up working with the UK’s first free-roaming bison herd.”
It is thought at least one, and perhaps both, female bison are pregnant, with hope for calves being born in the autumn.