The wisent (also known as the European bison), a large bull-like animal that disappeared from the Netherlands in the last ice age, is back and is doing well.

Two years ago a small herd of six wisents were brought to the Netherlands from Poland to live in the Zuid-Kennemerland National Park,a nature reserve between Ijmuiden and Zandvoort. A recent report revealed that all the animals are as fit as a fiddle, and the group has already increased in size to ten.

Until half a century ago, wisents were almost extinct. There were just a small number left, living in animal parks. The Polish breeding programme – with the subsequent return of the animals into natural surroundings – was one of the biggest ecological success stories of the 20th Century.

But arguments immediately broke out when the animals were introduced into the Netherlands two years ago. Wisents are wild animals, so wouldn’t they present a danger to visitors? Very little was known about their behaviour;  what effect would they have on flora and fauna? And was it really necessary? Didn’t we already have Scottish highland cattle and wild horses on the grazing pastures?

Safety
It all seems to have worked out better than expected: not once single incident involving safety has been reported. The wisents, like almost all wild animals, have a strong tendency to stay out of the way of humans. Specifically, it isn’t easy to find the herd in the Zuid-Kennemerland National Park, even though it’s a relatively small nature reserve.

Furthermore, it’s true that the cattle graze away certain plants, such as the monkshood (a specis of aconitum), but happily that’s exactly one of the plants of which the National Park has too many. In the words of Leo Linnartz from ATK Nature, one of the many concerned organisations: "The variation is increasing, and that’s precisely what we wanted to happen."

Dominant animal species
But meanwhile, the fact remains that the wisents have not been native to this country for thousands of years. They were replaced by the new dominant animal species known as humans. However you look at it, that’s also a form of nature. So is it then unnatural to try to bring them back? Leo Linnartz:

"What you see now is that already since the Middle Ages, humans have made an increasing impression on their environment. They have increasingly brought more land into cultivation; small-scale agriculture in the middle of nature. What you see in the last century is that people are gradually retreating from the marginal agricultural lands. Former woodland will become woodland again because there are better, more fertile agricultural lands. Sandy areas, lower mountain regions, in general areas where farming is inefficient, are being reclaimed by nature. And in the landscape that develops from that, there’s structurally more space for the larger European wild animals that lived there in the past."

Wildlife population
In other words: the natural habitat in which the wisents feel at home, where they once lived, has unwittingly been recreated. The drive to the west of the wolf from Eastern Europe is another example. This beast of prey has spontaneously reappeared in Germany. The wildlife population in the Belgian and French Ardennes is increasing so fast that it’s almost out of control. Red deer are causing traffic accidents, and foxes have killed off the entire chicken population of some rural villages. Even in the Netherlands, wild boars have turned from a tourist attraction into a problem.

Therefore, says Mr Linnartz, it is not unnatural that the wisents are back:

"There’s enough space, not only in the Netherlands but also in our neighbouring countries. If they're not prevented from doing so by people and fences, then they’ll come of their own accord."

All in all, Leo Linnartz is positive about the future of the wisents. He even foresees a situation in which whole herds will roam freely through Europe if the European ecological infrastructure -  a network of interconnected nature reserves – one day becomes a reality. This utopian vision of the future still looks far away, but while there’s life, there’s hope. As for the wisents: "They’ll do OK,"  says Mr Linnartz.

Photos courtesy www.wisenten.nl.