How the return of the Bison will transform Europe

[Music] this is the European bison one of the most iconic and important keystone species of Europe and most people aren't even aware of their existence but from 12 ancestors they've been quietly saved from Extinction and now number almost 10 000 individuals which are slowly returning to the European landscape and this naturally raises some concerns and some really important questions around what their return might mean for us humans which are currently occupying that space you see the European bison roamed the forests and grasslands of this continent for thousands of years but the question remains how they will interact with this new human landscape that we have now can we manage to coexist with their trampling tree breaking poo spreading and sand bathing behavior and do we have enough space to avoid a scenario where a 100 strong herd of bison takes a walk on a six-lane highway I intend to address these questions in this first episode of our two-part series focused on the European bison to ensure you get the complete picture I spoke with experts read through the latest research and studies and I even tracked a recently reintroduced herd of bison in the fagarash mountains of Romania to properly show them to you in the wild this has taken days and nights on the train to Eastern Europe sweaty hikes cold hands on the camera and countless hours of research fueled by excessive amounts of coffee and you might rightly wonder why do all of this why bother and for me it's about setting things right this species was wiped out by us by humans and I think that if we can help spread the word to increase tolerance for this amazing and iconic European animal and by doing so make their return a little bit easier then it will have been worth it already but we also have an additional motivation you see for a while now we've been looking at how to fund the right kind of European bison reintroduction and what better way to research the topic and learn more about the kinds of projects that exist out there then researching a video in depth and connecting with successful projects now before we start tracking the wild herd of bison and before we start looking at their expansion into new areas I want to First Take stock of the current situation and I found the perfect document for this let me introduce you to the European bison strategic species status review what a tongue twister it's a comprehensive 148 page report published by the iucn Bison Specialist Group it's a chunker of a document but I read through most of it and I also spoke with Yvonne one of the experts who wrote some of the chapters so let's start by looking at their population if we turn to chapter 7 which deals with that topic we will find these two tables which track the Bison population and number of herds in three types of condition captive which means really small enclosures such as zoos and Farms semi-free which covers herds that are fenced in but in large areas such as the one I visited in bonhom last year which had about 200 hectares and free ranging ones such as the ones I'll be tracking in the fagaraj mountains for this video it's great to see that that's both in terms of herds and individuals the numbers have been going up across all three types of population but as you can see the biggest increase is in the free-ranging group which means proper wild European bison that is amazing to see by the way I've put this document in the description Down Below in case you would like to read it and I can promise you these 148 pages are worth their weight in gold now while looking at this table you might be confused about the lb and LC that you see on the columns this refer to the two genetic lines that exist for the European bison since their bottleneck of 12 Founders this is another important point to take into account for the current population and chapter 6 deals with the genetic diversity issue which you know is the type of problem that tends to crop up when you have only 12 Founders I mean if you can easily list all of them in 5 seconds it's not a good sign and Bill I probably butchered about three different languages with this attempt at saying this list really fast but uh the point that you need to remember is that there were very few Founders and early on they were bred into two distinct genetic lines DLB stands for lowland galovies and it had seven Founders four males and three females all from biology Forest so that is a pure bison bonassus bonassus line and then there is the LC line which stands for lowland Caucasian derived from five males and seven females and includes the only surviving bison aptly named Caucasus from the now extinct Caucasian bison subspecies this low genetic diversity can lead to problems such as weaker resistance to pathogens and future expansions of Bison populations need to be very careful to save the genetic variability by keeping these two lines separate or by using underrepresented founder DNA in their breeding programs this stuff is really super interesting and we could go into it in a lot more depth but I think maybe that's a topic for a future video now let's look at where all of these animals are and for that let's take a look at the semi-free and free-ranging populations in terms of semi-free Bison we can see that Germany has the most followed by the Czech Republic and then Belarus by the way the two different colors here symbolize the two genetic lines we just talked about so you can see how they are currently split in geographic terms when it comes to the fully wild free-ranging category we see that Belarus and Poland have the most bison and a large portion of these are part of one population in bialo vieje which is this Forest between the two countries let's call it the spiritual home of the Bison given that all bison alive descend from there except for a small bit of genetic material from the Caucasus then we have large populations in Russia Ukraine and Lithuania once again in this map you can see how the two genetic lines split geographically now now any good story about the keystone species would be very incomplete without including how they transform their environment so let's look at that bison are very active and in addition to browsing and grazing they also change the vegetation by debarking and breaking trees opening paths in the undergrowth and creating bare soil Patches by wallowing in the sand this Behavior creates a mosaic of habitats which allows for more biodiversity open patches without trees allow for Meadows to flourish opening parts of the understory can be important for other plants but also other mammals and the bare soil patches they create allow for Pioneer plants to settle and insects to sunbathe and reproduce they also carry seeds everywhere they go which helps with dispersion they poo in huge amounts thus Distributing nutrients and the birds even use their fur to build their nests or simply land on the Bison to pick their parasites they are a walking biodiversity machine this much we know but the question remains can our biodiversity Wonder animal coexist with this the human landscape to answer that question let's start by looking at the potential for the Bison population to expand to new areas and to continue using the same framework let's look at the semi-free and free-ranging herds because the captive ones are interesting and important for breeding but not very impactful when it comes to rewilding or the transformation of ecosystems let's start with semi-free bison which are bison herds fenced in a large area to clarify what this would look like I reached out to Yvonne who has managed bison projects in the past and also contributed to the iucn report I showed you earlier if we look at the scenario of a large herd of with the prospect of Hunter bison or even more individuals in let's say a fenced area of 5000 hectares fencing is one of the most important things to keep in check but a proper fence not much higher than one meter 50 with electricity keeps bison in but is no barrier for most other Wildlife for context this is pretty similar to the fences used by many farmers to graze their cattle and people are quite familiar with those so they wouldn't really be an obstacle now in the project I visited in Born home this Danish Island here they fenced in about 200 hectares and have a herd of around a dozen bison this felt like a nice balance as you had to walk around quite a bit to find them I personally hiked for about two hours before seeing the first one and judging by the Google reviews for the forest it seems some people complain of not finding them at all I think that is great actually and I think that these people really went there expecting a zoo I think we need a bit more education on what a wild animal is but back to the project broadly speaking there are four key points to manage that's the Bison stay fenced in that's the Bison have the right conditions to be healthy controlling the population by transferring excess bison to new projects and managing the potential risk for visitors So based on this we are looking for areas of about 200 to 5000 hectares which we can fence and manage for rewilding purposes the larger the area the more work is needed of course but it seems to me that when it comes to this type of expansion the opportunities are endless I mean look at how tiny this 200 hectare Forest is even in the context of the tiny island of born home and then look at how 5000 hectares which is huge for bison fits in so many places in Europe I think this type of project is really exciting especially to help the Bison return to the western part of their range where they are really missing because essentially defenses allow us to start the reintroduction with minimal fuss while at the same time allowing the Bison to live a rather natural life and also to start positively impacting the ecosystem so what do you think is there room for bison in your area please let me know in the comments below because I'm really curious to see all the different answers and whether you think think they can actually live where you are so now let's turn to the free-ranging herds and the question is where in Europe can we let bison loose to roam free like they once did and to properly illustrate this the time has finally come to show you the herd of bison I've been tracking in the fagarash mountains in Romania this reintroduction is run by our partners at Foundation conservation Carpathia we work with them on a number of projects including the reforestation of clear cuts and the protection of wildlife through anti-poaching devices we also have a ton of new projects brewing with them possibly even including a bison reintroduction in another place which would be really exciting as a side note if you'd like to support this type of rewilding project then be sure to check out our website at mossy.earth where we run our rewilding and reforestation membership it's pretty cheap to join but very impactful and we try to keep you up to date through our app a Discord server and of course these YouTube videos our projects range from restoring kelp in the bottom of the sea to bring back the Lost forests of Iceland and hopefully in the near future also a bison reintroduction so if that sounds like something you would like to support be sure to check out mossy.earth to join our rewilding community when it comes to reintroducing bison the first stage is to Source the herd bearing in mind of course the genetic makeup is really important Carpathia sourced their bison from six different countries and as far as I've been able to gather they are all from the LC genetic line you can actually see the beginnings of this project in the document we were reviewing earlier here are the captive ones and here is the first free herd since then a total of 58 bison were released there and a further 8 have been born so far which is super cool after arriving at their destination the first step is to put them in a small enclosure this here is one of the pens where Carpathia keeps their bison before release it's a rather small pen to begin with but it's great for the Bison to start acclimatizing to the conditions out here and then they will be moved to a bigger area but that is still fenced and protected and finally they'll be released to the wild but this is the first stage and we're here today to learn a bit more how all of this is done so perhaps we can carry this knowledge to other projects much like the Bison me and Tom got to Romania traveling in small compartments on Wheels well maybe they're a bit more comfortable than what the Bison got but I can promise you it's a long journey you wouldn't want to jump straight into the Romanian Wilderness without some time to chill for now this bison were quite relaxed around humans we did our best not to disturb them but it was noticeable that at this stage they did not care whether we were there or not over time as the enclosure gets larger and human exposure reduces they will return to a more cautious and wild Behavior which is really important I actually shot this video here of a bison really going at this tree inside the enclosure so it's nice to see that their instincts are already awakened and that they are doing their thing as they'll be out in the wild in only a few months now be before we track the wild herd of bison I think it's important we first look at how much space they really need when they're actually allowed to roam free and for this once again I would like to turn to the document that for me has now become the Holy Bible of Bison here in chapter 4 which looks at their biology and ecology there is a section on the size of their home range which is essentially how far a herd of bison will travel there are many factors to consider ranging from the different behavior of males and females or how herds behave different during different seasons and even how a wild herd reacts when they're given supplementary feeding these are all really important points for the people who manage the herds impacts but I would like to summarize it simply by saying that they need something ranging from three square kilometers if they have daily supplementary feeding all the way to the Other Extreme of about 152 square kilometers for both during reproductive season now this is a big area but when you look at the size of the fagarash it's still a drop in the ocean they're more than 2000 square kilometers of habitat available that is a lot of space even for the most ambitious and expansionist male bison so looking for bison or any other wild animal can be really tricky so we cheated a little bit to find our herd here in the fagarash you see to monitor the Bison they put a special color on some of the individuals of each herd and every morning the caller sends a text with its GPS location then after we arrive in the general area and we are starting to get closer we can use these antennas to find exactly where they are nevertheless for the two days we tracked them it still took us between 45 minutes and 2 hours to find them and the clams were Steep and slippery so I'm here with uh with Tom with David and also two other rangers from Carpathia E1 and Adrian and uh we just managed to to track one of the Bison herds using GPS it's uh one of the herds they've managed to release here in the fagaraj mountains that are actually one of the few herds in Europe that can probably roam wherever they want it really is a privilege to see these animals in the world I mean in 2020 there were only 45 of these herds in the whole world now there are probably a few more we'll see it in the next report I'm sure but that is still a very rare thing to be able to see bison roaming fully free in the wild and to see them return here is even more special in my eyes you see the fagarash mountains include the largest continuous old-growth forests of Europe as well as the largest populations of bears wolves and Lynx this is true European Wilderness and returning the Bison to this place after more than 100 Years of absence is like fitting in one of the final pieces of the puzzle that is this amazing ecosystem there's this nervous excitement I get from this and I can't really place my finger on it but the overriding emotion for me is that these animals have simply returned home I've roamed the valleys and the peaks of these mountains for years before they were reintroduced and I think that only now I'm realizing how much the landscape really was missing now emotional ponderings aside these animals don't have GPS colors for me to be able to see them they serve an actual function of course they allow a team of Rangers to monitor the movements of the herd and ensure that they're not digging up someone's cabbages down in the village I feel like often bringing back animals to the landscape is more about mitigating any impacts on humans than it is creating good conditions for the animal because basically they'll do just fine other ways to manage the herd include something as advanced as Sentry systems which positively identify them using Ai and then scare them off all the way down to the most basic Technologies such as fencing in people's crops and vegetable gardens I think ultimately the overriding requirements to have free roaming bison is a team to keep an eye on them and help mitigate their impacts we need the people who live near these animals to love them and not hate them this will be key to the success of any new expansions now I think this finally gives us a list of requirements of what bison need so where can they go in the east of their range things are improving really well so let's focus on the possibility of a Westward Expansion which is where they're really missing bison could thrive in semi-free condition in high density areas such as Switzerland the Netherlands Belgium Germany the UK or Denmark in fact there are already semi-free herds in some of these countries but with a bit more ambition a larger area could be fenced to allow them a bit more space have to repeat the born home project was only 200 hectares in size but it was a fantastic place for them and for the people to enjoy and to be able to see and appreciate this species but what about the all-important fully free-ranging wild bison herds I mean surely there is no space for them in Western Europe well in those countries I mentioned I don't think this is is a very easy thing to achieve certainly not without an excellent management plan and a great team of Rangers but there could easily be enough space for them in places like Sweden which has huge forests and is in their historic range or Norway and Finland that because of climate change will become more adequate for them as well but it's not just the nordics with all of their space Lithuania already has plenty of Bison but in the baltics Latvia and Estonia don't really have many and they have great conditions too then further south you can actually also find great conditions in places like Austria France Italy and Spain all of these countries have at least 30 square kilometers available which would fit a well-managed herd and some even have hundreds or thousands of square kilometers of Ideal habitat just waiting to be used and the great thing is that many of these areas already have a management team because their national parks or Wilderness reserves so my only conclusion is that at this stage the delay in the return of the Bison in the west part of its range is only due to lack of imagination and not actual barriers too many people still think of the Bison as a Polish animal but look at its range it belongs in Western Europe so will you see bison going over your local six-lane Highway in a nature taking over a style scenario I think the chances of that are near zero but given this new rewilding movement is picking up some speed you might be able to spot a bison quietly munching on a bush in your local forest or grassland and that is an amazing thought be sure to keep an eye out for part two coming in a few weeks or maybe a month depending how fast we work and I can tell you that these videos are a ton of work so if you watched it this far I'd be really curious to hear your thoughts and whether you enjoy this type of longer video and more in-depth view on a certain topic and a final reminder that if you enjoy our work and you would like to support our projects then you should check out mossy.earth to join our membership and start rewilding our landscape until next time cheers

Channel: Mossy Earth

Views: 446,008

Keywords: european bison, european bison reintroduction, european bison poland, bison, European Bison Romania, european bison uk, European Bison Denmark, European Bison Germany, European Bison Spain, European Bison Keystone Species, Keystone Species, Rewilding, wildlife reintroduction, Mossy Earth, Tom Berry, Duarte de Zoeten, Tom Hikin

Id: -LFVS3djm8U

Length: 19min 49sec (1189 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 18 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/ExoticShock]

Here's The European Bison Strategic Species Status Review document they referenced for the video if anyone's curious.

Another great video by Mossy Earth, really hope European Bison can expand westward into their old range soon. Would truly be a great sight to see them roaming in large, free herds like some of their North American relatives do.