Introduction to the Blean Bison project 🦬

On 18th July 2022, as the temperature soared past 40 degrees and under the glare of an international media spotlight, three European bison took their first tentative steps into an ancient Canterbury woodland and began a new era of conservation as part of the Blean Bison project.
The three bison were the first to freely roam in the UK in thousands of years. They had been released into the woodland by Kent Wildlife Trust and Wildwood Trust as part of a ground-breaking wilding initiative using large herbivores to reshape the landscape to combat the nature crisis and make the area more resilient to climate change. More milestones were to come as in early September an unexpected bison calf was born and became the first wild bison calf born in the UK.
In December the herd were joined by The bull, who travelled all the way from Germany to complete the herd and finally ponies, cattle and pigs were released to be closely observed, alongside the bison, as part of one of the largest monitoring programmes of its kind in the UK. With three treatment areas, research will establish how the bison impact the woodland differently to the other grazing areas.
Find out more about the project:
www.wildwoodtr...