How four bison brought new life to ancient woodland in Kent

Here's a video from Dr Edmund Hale that makes rewilding seem not a wild flight of fancy but common sense:

Bison reintroduction in England began in 2022 when four European bison were released into West Blean Woods near Canterbury, Kent – the first wild bison in Britain for thousands of years. This rewilding experiment had one goal: save a dying ancient woodland that conventional conservation, chainsaws, and machinery had failed to fix. What these ecosystem engineers did next with bark, hooves, and pure instinct stunned the scientists monitoring them.

Within weeks, the bison tore open the sealed forest canopy, stripped bark to create life-giving deadwood, and churned the soil into new habitat – and the woodland responded almost instantly. Dung beetles, rare plants, and wildlife began returning to ground that had been silent for decades.

But here's the twist: this species was once down to just 12 animals on Earth. The four bison rebuilding this English forest are the living end of a 100-year fight against extinction – and their return is forcing conservationists to rethink everything about how forests should be saved.

And the stern tone Dr Hale adopts here makes him sound much as you imagine a European bison who had made a deep study of the sufferings of his species would sound.