Rangers are ready to care for the U.K.'s 1st bison herd in thousands of years
'Give nature the freedom and the space to heal itself. It's got a remarkable ability to heal,' ranger says
Wildlife ranger Donovan Wright is getting ready to work with the long-awaited wild bison that are making a comeback to the U.K.'s ancient Kent woodland.
He is one of the newest rangers hired to welcome the four bison that will be arriving next spring as part of their conservation project to rewild the Blean Woods near Canterbury, England.
"We're putting up fencing. We're putting up a bison corral. We're building ponds," Wright told As It Happens host Carol Off.
"Apart from looking after the woods, we will also be helping save an animal that was almost brought to the brink of extinction."
The four European bison will be the first to roam in the U.K. after the species was driven to near extinction nearly a century ago. Most of these bison died from habitat degradation and fragmentation, forest logging and unlimited hunting and poaching.
The Kent Wildlife Trust and Wildwood Trust partnered together to reintroduce the bison and increase ecological diversity.
Wright looks to the bison as "eco-engineers" with a "jet fuel for biodiversity."
The large land animal can naturally fell trees by rubbing up against them and feeding off the bark. They can open up a canopy within the pine forest and allow light to penetrate through to the floor — which can bring life back to the ecosystem.
"If you look at the Blean Woods as they are today, we've got this beautiful, dense canopy on the top of the woods. Unfortunately, underneath, there's not much happening," he said.
"That's why the bison are so important.... By opening up that canopy, they create this rich mosaic of habitats, and that's where you get to this greater variety and abundance of species coming in."
It's incredible, an amazing story.- Donovan Wright, wildlife ranger
Even as bison roam the woods, Wright says they can create pores through the dense undergrowth for different species of insects and wildflowers. Dead trees can also become homes for woodpeckers, bats and fungi.
"Sometimes they are referred to as an umbrella species because they really safeguard the quality of life for other species within the ecosystem," the bison ranger said. "Just like an umbrella protects you from the rain."
This will be Wright's first time taking care of bison in his 20-plus years as a ranger. The closest animal he worked with was the cape buffalo. In southern Africa, he tended to elephants, rhinos and other large animals.
Recently, he trained alongside his co-ranger Tom Gibbs for two weeks in the Netherlands and saw European bison grazing in nature reserves firsthand.
Six thousand years ago, the steppe bison roamed freely across the U.K. until hunting and changes in land habitat led to extinction around the world. The European bison is a descendent of this species and recently moved from "vulnerable" to "near threatened" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.
"All the European bison we have today descend from 12 individuals," Wright said about their near extinction, which Polish conservationists helped to prevent by herding the remaining bison held in zoos in the 1920s. "It's incredible, an amazing story."
The rangers will constantly monitor the genetically fragile species to help them grow into a strong herd.
As for the ancient Kent woods, he believes the European bison are the key to revitalization.
"We've tried it the traditional way, you know, with heavy machinery. And unfortunately, human management alone is not enough to create the types of habitats we need for species to survive," Wright said.
"Give nature the freedom and the space to heal itself. It's got a remarkable ability to heal."
Written by Mehek Mazhar. Interview produced by Abby Plener.
