Watch the moment bison were released into UK as part of rewilding project
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- čas přidán 17. 07. 2022
- Four European bison have been released into ancient woodland in south-east England, part of a rewilding project. The aim is to explore the potential benefits such large animals can have on woodland ecosystems.
The release of two calves from Ireland, a bull from Germany and a matriarch that was being held in captivity in Scotland was delayed by three months due to paperwork headaches around wild animal imports, as the UK is no longer a member of the European Union.
New Scientist met the team behind the project including the UK's first Bison rangers.
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Greetings from Africa. This makes my heart so happy. Keep up rewilding this Earth. Great job!
I strongly support rewilding and re-introduction of the native species. I am slightly concerned though if UK has large enough woodland to support European bison. I understand that this is a small, contained population but if they are to breed they will need much larger space....and if they are not allowed to breed then why would you re-introduce them in the first place? Also: UK needs bigger carnivores to control already overpopulated herbivores e.g. deer. Herbivores consume young trees. Thus they prevent forest from growing....
we are reintroducing boars (omnivores) and wolves (carnivores) as well as beavers
@@cyberash3000 I don’t think they’re reintroducing wolves unfortunately, boars and beavers have been reintroduced though I think
@@hmalik5232 havnt you? I have
@@hmalik5232 Wild boar have been here along time estimated to be about 4,000, there's about 400 wild beaver, I'll be very surprised if free roaming wolves are ever allowed in this over crowded island.
@@hmalik5232 then look around more the conversations have been going on for years and we've already reintroduced a population of beavers so ye..........
This whole process is very kool. So glad to see projects like this happening in real time. Those Euro bison are beautiful. Good luck UK! 🦬🦬🦬🦬
They're magnificent! So beautiful. I hope they thrive in their new home.
Vermin spreading foot and mouth disease
Hope they don't gore any old ladies picking mushrooms
@@FrejthKing You see??!
@@guff9567 You Hear??!
@@FrejthKing Yes
I read Isabelle Tree's Rewilding book, and I learned so much, she said early on in the book that we have this idea that in years gone by before humans inhabited the Uk that a squirrel could move from land's end to John O'Groats without touching the ground because the forest was so dense. She said that can't have been true because they found so many hoven animal bones in caves that must have been grazers so there must have been a lot of open grasslands, pretty much how Africa looks today.
Plus, there were so many oak trees, oaks do not like to live in thick forests, they only thrive in open aspects, anyone who has seen an oak today will see this. Her conclusion was that the best way to preserve nature was for man to leave it alone.
She serves those who want mankind dead or enslaved in their homes. They are succeeding, slowly. And they will cause famine too. Eat that book perhaps?
Our local forest has a lot of oaks that thrive in the shadows below bigger trees. It could be we have a different species of oaks though.
We also saw what happened to the native red squirrel when a foreign grey squirrel overtook the entire island of Britain. I think only one little island has red squirrel now. I couldn't agree more. Nature is a balance. Tree stripping giant bison sounds a terrible fate.
@@sandracairney6007 Isle Of Wight has the reds.
Gorgeous animals 💚🐂💚 I hope it works out for them and there is enough land to accommodate such massive units. Well Done to all involved 👏🏻👏🏻
It will disrupt the natural ecosystem and destroy our forests, habitation for other animals etc
Awesome work. Thank you for trying to restore our world.
It's their job. They get paid. They don't need to be thanked because it seems like a job that a lot of people would love to have.
I'm really not trying to sound like a jerk but sometimes you run into people who overuse a word like "hero" or "awesome" or "thank you" and then the word loses it's power of the word itself. My point is that if you thank everyone and everything to see for every action that occurs near you then it probably means you're not actually thankful but you're saying it more because it's habitual. Or maybe you're just trying to make yourself look like you're a good person even though nobody knows you or pays attention so that would just be silly. Sort of like you're commenting just for sake of commenting because maybe you can't help yourself.
So much of the British islands flora and fauna was been decimated, thank you for doing this effort.
Lol desimates trees
I’m so excited to see these guys back in the UK!
It seems to me that eventually they will need to reintroduce wolves to keep the population in check. That's what they had to do at Yellowstone.
You never seem them in uk so 1st time
@@richardgoldins4790 that’s a good point but their ancestor the ‘steppe bison’ lived here until around 12 thousand years ago
@@GeorgeTheDinoGuy so im right 1st time
@@richardgoldins4790 yes
Your welcome. Poland
Thanks Poland, much appreciated.
@@dellwright1407 love these majestic creatures ❤❤❤
We don't even want them it's a stupid idea
@@truthandfreedom9849 why is it a stupid idea? Bell end
@@dannyhardman8822 cos nobody want to get attacked by wolves or gored by a byson ....... You absolute genius
Great, there are always good people who want to help native ecosystems
The people responsible should be sent packing. Isn't this why we voted Brexit ?
Massive respect for the project, keep up the good work - hopefully one day they will be common place in our woodlands. And how interesting is that technology for measuring vegetative biomass, very cool!
This is absolutely fantastic! Let’s get them released up in The Highlands now. Great stuff. 👍🏼
they aren't native though. We should be reintroducing bears and wolves, not bison.
@@alexb7799 And Lynx.
All animals are vermin, spreading diseases and pathogens. Extremely irresponsible
@@alexb7799 they are native, we should reintroduce the Eurasian Lynx, bears, wolves and European Bison
@@hmalik5232 they went extinct naturally so they weren't meant to be here.
If you go down to the woods today you're sure of a big surprise.....
It's great to see so many different kinds of data collected. It ought to help more severely test and validate models.
Man has gone from being a part of nature to appointing himself lord and ruler of it. Surveilling, monitoring, engineering, controlling, taming, domesticating.
Yep, this is so contrived with the age old adage "playing god", at the same time they want to reduce & digitize the human population
thats because we are all of the above , we are the most inteligent species
@@kevintravis5123 False. You have been programmed with this delusion throughout childhood, adolescence, teenage years and then adulthood. This is the cornerstone fallacy that props up and sustains civilization. The man who believes that man is the most intelligent, ascended species makes the perfect slave for any ruler of a civilization. By believing that the amazing technologies and skyscrapers and machines around you are a symbol of your superiority, and failing to recognise that they are symbols of your enslavement, you remain the perfect slave, ready to be exploited by your masters for any of their agendas and projects.
@@Twobirdsbreakingfree it’s false like my ass … oh wait !
Actually, God appointed us, ad we are.
This is great to see, wish more projects like this happens all over. Congratulations guys.
shure shure but lets stop pusy footing with dangerous herbivores and go straight for big predators after all its only farmers and people in rural areas who gona suffer "accidental visits" .
My goodness, folks...Four, yes 4! bison are released and you're already anticipating they're going to wreck the environment and debating methods of culling them. Four bison!
in a highly monitored experiment.....
Uk government and people are absolute idiot in that kind of subject.
You could breed bison for decades and they would still not even be at full capacity of what the ecosystem can handle.
you'll never see the government argue for cull of sheep, cow and humans, all being extremely nocive and invasive and overpopulated
Great idea, also great to see that you have invested in proper cattle handling gear like the Vet Crush and panels. Not something I see in the UK. Here it quite common, cheers and good luck from OZ
Do you like foot & mouth disease
@@guff9567 Considering much of its spread in Wales was farmer orchestrated I think your remark is ignorant.
@@dickdastardly5534 Stop being racist against Welsh. These bison are much more like to spread badger TB and four and mouth. It's a highly irresponsible and dangerous way of squandering OUR tax money
@@guff9567 Thanks Guff, hopefully our Bio Security people will be on to it. I breed cattle and its worrying everyone here. Cheers
@@guff9567 the main concern would be brucellosis which bison often have, but given the bio security will most likely have spent at least a couple of weeks in quarantine.
Aw now I want to run up and hug a bison!
Yes!!! I love it, hope all unsavouries steer clear.
Amazing I go to Blean woods all the time , great for the future. Hope we can introduce some more species in the future
maybe some Mammoths and sabre tooth tigers too.
@@FrejthKing mammoths would be unable to survive in our current climate. Scottish wildcats and lynx would do well
@@theotheseaeagle maybe you could import some friendly Australian spiders and Emus ;D
You won't be going there much if you meet angry bison - and the bison will destroy the woodland. I am all for rewilding - but this is insane, very destructive.
@@FrejthKing we already have rheas, we don’t need emus
Very nice initiative. Good luck in your project among others in the future, hopefully
They can release giant bison, but are too scared of tiny lynxes.
they "released" them in a fucking enclosure, they're not wild.
and yes uk government and hunter/farmers are stupid
With the price of everything these will be on the menu soon for poaching.
First, the beaver was reintroduced, and now the UK has bison! Nature would also appreciate it if we kept our domestic cats indoors during nesting season.
Cats don’t even have a big impact on bird populations in the UK. Even bird protection organisations say that cats do hardly anything to negatively effect bird populations in the UK
@@theotheseaeagle Yeah, wind turbines and solar panels are statistically far more deadly to flying birds.
@@echofoxtrot2.051 exactly
@@theotheseaeagle which have been debunked and proven false, they do dammage bird population and behaviour.
And even negligible damage are catastrophic when we talk about endangred, declining, fragmented species.
Cats are the second most invasive and destructive species on earth after human and responsable for dozen of species extinctions
Wiltshire has had Bison for over a decade now.
Is this an experiment (Testing an hypothesis, say) or do you have an expected outcome? Not sure the findings can be unbiased if you are 'hoping' for a specific impact.
Having said that, it looks like a really great project and I really wish you much joy and success.
Natural grazing benefits are something well studied and documented
A hypothesis is an expected outcome. The experiment is meant to prove or disprove a predicted outcome.
Lain, you seem like you might be a little whacky or a few cards short of a deck. No offense.
@@katiekat4457 that is an interesting observation Katie. Could you be specific? what did I say to make you think that?
Thanks
Wow, this is exciting. Hope it goes well 🤞🤞
I'm not entirely sure what I would do if I came across a wild bison in the future, but I do know I would feel happy for the experience.
Is that the tiny little patch of woodland?😄
Awesome, great work❤️🙏
This makes me very happy! 👍🥰
Some will not be happy until we reintroduce sabre tooth tigers and dinosaurs!
We need more trees, not less, there will be few to no Ash or Horse Chestnut trees soon due to the current diseases. If you're rewilding properly surely you need top preditors as we are already overun with deer - where are the Wolves? Ask National Trust owned Stourhead House and Estate in Wiltshire what happened to their land when their neighbour introduced wild Boars, it didn't go too well. This is basicaly another World Ecconomic Forum Great Reset ideal which you have fallen for.
Yep the deer are already doing the nibbling. Huge increase in deer numbers in Saddleworth where I live, so many I'm suspicious that they are being released yearly like pheasant are. All fun and games until one comes through your windscreen at fifty mph.
@@flea1683 They're probably rewilding for their hunting trips when us plebs have all been confined to quarters and only allowed out to work, lol.
It sure as hell wouldn't surprise me, .
@@anthonydoyle7370 Yeah we won't need to worry about deer on the road if we don't have a car.
Boar have had great impacts on our ecosystem. They till the soil allowing for new plants and tree growth and help disperse seeds, as well as digging up insects so birds have a good source in winter. And if your so worried about trees, go to one of those big tree planting projects or buy some and plant them yourself, or even better, find a solution to those plant diseases like many people already are
Horse Chestnuts aren‘t even native to most of Europe… They are actually native to just one region - the Balkan Peninsula
Introducing more grazing animals seems useless to me unless there are predators to control the population. I would love to see bison in the wild but, just like deer, they would devastate woodlands and other areas.
Large herbivores can be controlled without actually releasing predators. Humans can move these herds. In fact humans can direct herds to areas that need more attention and away from sensitive locations. We can plan the herd movement while wolves or lions wouldn't. In Britain's smaller wildlife areas controlled movements would be wise.
Regulated hunting would be the answer
They are trying to reintroduce lynx and possibly wolves into areas of Scotland. But lynx would be to small to take down such large prey as the largest animals they have been known to kill are female red deer
European bison do not devastate woodlands, it is where they naturally live.
@@ryanedwards805 I don’t think the UK has large area of wildness that would be needed to support wolves, bears etc
These bison are being kept in a fenced in area hardly in the wild
More like a safari park
Good to see the Vison ! 🤠
I am guessing that the bison will have to recaptured and rotated back to the EU on a regular basis to keep the population healthy, from a breading and genetic point of view? I'm sure they have a plan for this already though. I would be interested to know what the minimum viable population to prevent inbreeding for bison is.
Whats the music?
Thank You.
this is an awsome project
GREAT, so they aren't afraid of animals yet 👍🙏🏻🥰
dope, more please
Life in the big city. I wish them well.
is this private woodland or public woodland? because last i checked bison are easily spooked?
They should have a 4th test area with bison, longhorned cattle, Exmoor ponies, and iron-aged pigs too...
I guess that they arrived from Poland .Recently one cow had been assigned to the Bison herd. Scientists couldn't believe how the cow could survive harsh Polish winters up to -25C .They took care of her and she was very happy with her instinct .The national park is near the Belorussian border.They don't like the hilly landscape .When we look at American westerns they also didn't like hills. There is a some kind of influence of insect which killed trees earlier than it could be but there was an outcry of environmentalists to leave the forest to die naturally without human interference ..
-25 is not that bad.
In northeast Siberia is Pleistocene Park, which has a dozen american bison in their large fenced-in area (along with horses, cows, yaks, camels & a pair of musk oxen). The bison are doing fine. They wanted European Bison, but ones they got a few years earlier got there at a bad time of year and didn't acclimatize in time for winter, so only 1 remain, and getting more European Bison has turned out to be far more difficult than getting the american species (from a farm in Denmark).
in short: Bison can handle Siberian winters.
Its great to see rewilding in the uk but to keep numbers down from over populating like deer have and rabbits and hares we really need a wild cat like lynks
1. there's no overpopulation of rabbit in UK
2. the overpopulation of deer is caused by hunters in artificials ways.
3. you would need hundreds of years before the bison population start being an issue if it ever happen.
4. lynx can't even attack bison, only predator you could get are wolves and bear, and even they don't attack it often.
Red deer is no longer the largest animal in the UK
So exciting 🙌
no talk of them breeding - will we have baby bison in this project?
Beautiful 😍
Fantastic
Very intresting development so let us see the results
Four Bison with a big, huge fence around them isn't rewilding, its a science experiment. A ranch in our area has about 30 to 50 on about 200 acres. I haven't noticed much habitat change, but they aren't in a forest.
Bison being released back into the wild in UK? What wild? We have like 5 metres of it
wonderful news.
The most amazing part is that you found enough land in the UK where you could let them roam.
I will not comply
Thank you for part of my new food supply when things go south
Bring on the wolf, we'll put a couple on the ferry.
Waiting for the first complaint that they are dangerous etc.
When did Bison go extinct in the UK?
Depending on the species of Bison, between 40000 and 6000 years ago.
@@lb540 Gee whizz,I wonder if these Bison will be able to make a go of it as things will have changed much I should imagine in this time frame?
Thanks - this was most informative. I'm interest to find out why bison were chosen, and not a breed more indigenous to the UK such as large deer? Or Is this a replacement for a similar, now extinct, UK species? I assume these animals are sterilized?
Once upon a time they lived in uk and wolves we hunted them all
@@richardgoldins4790 Very interesting. Thanks!
They're not sterilised, the plan is for them to breed!
We had bears and beavers as well
Because they will do maximum damage.
I wish them - the Bison and the part staff - well. The rolling in sand looks to me similar to Gnue (wildebeest) behaviour - I watch a Namibian water hole as background 'wallpaper'.
Maybe this park trust could get Dell sponsorship - an upgrade to that laptop would be nice.
I'd have those responsible sent packing. Brexit means Brexit.
Wonder if they keep ivy off trees.
'Enclosed' Woodland !
Cost cutting who ever stopped managing a lot of land and road edges years ago
Exciting project ,time will tell how it all goes ,but of course the bison ,population would have to be monitored.
Do you have a question about why a bison disturbing a forest benefits the forest? Please ask. A lot of the principles are scientific and supported by permaculture principles as well. Forests thrive on disturbance, and benefit from providing trees a difficulty in overcompeting the lower levels like shrubs, vines, and soft green understory plants. Undisturbed forests get choked up and can't grow to their full potential. For example, light is so in demand you end up with splindley thin stretching trees with little to no canopy because there's simply no space between individuals. With more open space, more branches can spread and fill with leaves which drop in autumn and help build soil.
There's much more than that, but if you have questions ask!
Do you know about the canopy of a forest?
This is a great initiative.. Just don’t release any big cats otherwise things won’t go well 😄👍🏼
I think maybe we can mixed them with north American bison's Europe should get some bison's from Canada or US as well.
Why don’t u bring back the wild bore to
I believe someone allready introducing bears also in the uk.
nope, never happened in the wild or even semi-liberty
I'm sure they must have this covered but I can't help but to worry whether they have good water sources. Those giant head's look like they need a lot of water. Plus maybe eating bark makes you thirsty like ketchup does to me?
great, now we are going to have giant horned things in london, not just foxes
So they eat the bark from the Base of the tree and kill the tree is that y we have to control deer in this country squirrels are doing the same and are pests
they also do lot of other potiive things, and grey squirrel are actually way worse at that than bison
I love them, They are gorgeous, but don;t you need more forests in the UK?! The whole of the sourth was deforested at one time.
What about humming birds.l?
Is there actually enough forest in England? These bison look skinny
yes they are, and bison are lean, unlike cow which you're used to see, these are very fat and not healthy with very short legs
Bring Boars back instead of Bison.
So the bison will eat tree bark & create clear spaces in the woodland areas…..at a time where we are being told we must plant millions more trees to absorb carbon we are introducing a species to reduce tree density in established woodland areas. Does anyone else notice a dichotomy in this reasoning?
Can people just admit that they get exited about introducing big extinct animal species back into the over crowded UK - but it’s OK because this will be in rural areas & not in Hoxton or other trendy metropolitan areas where most of these schemes are cooked up as that is where the majority of the advocates, & funding, for these schemes live?
Go back long enough and Hyenas & large felines lived here too, so how about releasing a few packs of those to wander the streets & markets of London? It’s a logical conclusion of the argument & would help to relieve the over population problems of the capital - it may even help with the current housing shortage & lead to housing becoming more affordable in these areas………much more affordable!
Will wolves be reintroduced in the same area as the bison?
nope, area too small, why would we put them alongside the bison anyway (they're only 4 of them they can't have any predation)
and uk government, hunters and farmers are bastard opposed to wolves
Marvellous! Hope they like English food.
shame we cant have wild bison roaming free even if we had a larger group like the USA do with their bison.
Interesting material, but the background "elevator music" is REALLY annoying.
As long as 'rewilding' is privately financed it sounds like a worthy idea. If this is using taxpayers money, I'm against it!
This is fucking dope.
GG. Btw I heard leopards and hyenas were once roaming across Europe. Let's bring them back cus these 1 ton animals aren't dangerous enough.
1. nearly no bison weigh 1 tons, thanks to overhunting the species decreased in size, no it's only extremely large individual that can achieve over 1 tons.
2. none of the species you listed here are actually dangerous to humans, even hyena and leopard only represent a minor risk, far less than cattle and dog.
3. yes we should have these back in the continent, it would greatly improve the ecosystems
How dangerous are they ??
Not very dangerous as long as you keep your distance and don't make them feel threatened. Basically, don't run at it or sneak up on it and scare it.
less than cow.
of course they're wild animals, but they're not dangerous, as long as you're not stupid and go near them
@@deinsilverdrac8695 Famous last words. 😁
I would rather have bison instead of long horned cows due to bison once being natural to the uk
Hey, I am all for rewilding and conserving as much as we can. But to me this seems OTT for 1) Bison went extinct in UK over 6000 years b.p. and 2) I am sure there are numerous other species with more priority to reintroduce that went extinct since that time... I doubt we have any real idea why they went extinct in the first place or even enough suitable habitat/native flora to even keep a herd healthy in UK to boot.
I say kill all humans are rewild with mastodon & mammoth
It’s important to reintroduce species that went extinct as a result of humans
@@hmalik5232 yes. I know. You did not read what I wrote.
You need an ecosystem that can support them BEFORE you reintroduce them or it is a waste of time & resources.
It's such a stupid idea to bring back bison and wolves !!
Nobody wants to meet a wolf it's so stupid !!
anyone seen thejm since :P
Any chance Aurochs can be revived through genetic manipulation?
eventually you will need to bring in wolves to keep the herd in check
Wolves are not necessary to regulate bison populations. Large herbivores are more regulated by factors such as the amount of food and resources in an area, than they are of predation. This is why large herbivores often migrate in search of food, since they require a lot to support themselves.
1. wolves barely predate bison so nope
2. it would take decade to get a viable population, and even in a century they would still not reach maximum carrying capacity of the habitat, so no need for that
they should see the water buffalo's
Isabelle Tree!? Let them eat cake!
Let's see if people can not interfere with them and leave them for at least 5 years.
Can't stand animals of any sort.
@@guff9567 People are animals, how do you get on with your folks. We are all animals, primates, apes.
@@guff9567 Then stay in the city.
@@robshirewood5060 No. You are wrong. The reason we call other species animals, is because they are NOT human. Look up "evolution".
@@Konoronn The city MUST expand to cover all of the earth's surface, and should preferably have NO green spaces
Raise a billion bison.
Bison released into an enclosure is not rewilding.
Back from the brink of extinction.