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Umm, no, not quite right

Back from the brink of extinction, these near-wild bison are roaming the forests of Germany for the first time for nearly 300 years.

Nine of the beasts were released in a forest last year near Bad Berleburg, in North Rhine-Westphalia. And so far, they appear to be thriving.

It is the result of a ground-breaking government-funded conservation project on land owned by 79-year-old Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg.

He hopes to prove that active species conservation can be combined with forestry and make Germany the first country west of Poland where the animals, also known as wisent, live in the wild once again.

There was a release into the wild in the Czech Republic a couple of years ago and they’re thriving too.

It’s true that not all of the CR is to the west of Poland but still….

9 thoughts on “Umm, no, not quite right”

  1. That’s a lot of good eating on the hoof. It should enhance the regeneration of the wolf packs as well.

  2. So Much For Subtlety

    It is the result of a ground-breaking government-funded conservation project on land owned by 79-year-old Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg.

    I count two and a half mistakes in that one sentence. For one thing, it is not ground-breaking. The wisent, as with Britain’s forests, have long been preserved by the aristocracy who like to hunt. For another, to call it government-funded is, at best, misleading. The Prince has in fact funded it mostly himself. Third, by merely claiming that the Prince owns the land, the story misleads. What they should say is that he had to fight the government every step of the way to get a project up and running that only he supported and believed in.

    We owe this man a debt of gratitude. As we can’t put him and his like back in power (as we ought) we could at least try to make sure credit goes where credit is due.

  3. Can we call it for what it really is – farming. The only conservation aspect is the use of a specific species of animal. The animals are as wild as any other domesticated animal which is left realtivey untouched day to day, they aren’t the same wild as in the depths of Africa.

  4. Best avoid those forests for the old Sunday morning constitutional then. Unless, of course, you’re really going for the ultimate cardio-vascular exercise.

  5. Outside of the rutting season, they are shy, and more likely to run from you.

    Seed the forests with Cape Buffalo & see the ramblers decrease rapidly!

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