The results of the four-year study, which focused on the feeding behaviour of reintroduced European bison, Konik horses and Highland cattle in and around the Kraansvlak reserve in the Netherlands, have important implications for rewilding initiatives across Europe.

On April 24 this year, one of the first members of the European Rewilding Network – the European Bison Project in Kraansvlak – celebrated its 10 year anniversary. In this blog, European Rewilding Network Exchange Officer and bison project coordinator Yvonne Kemp shares an inspirational story about the developing relationship between European bison and the people of the Netherlands.

This Monday, the Netherlands witnessed the start of a new bison grazing project. The first four animals were released in the Maashorst nature reserve in the south-eastern part of the country (Province of Noord-Brabant) where ultimately a starting herd of of 11 animals will roam a landscape of at least 1,500 hectares of forests, grasslands, shrubs and sand dunes. The animals are all part of the European Wildlife Bank.

Dave and Anna, two environmentalists from the United Kingdom, started their “biking for rewilding” tour in April 2015 after leaving their office jobs and taking off on an adventure with a purpose. In this fourth blog you can read about their visit to the European bison project in the Kraansvlak area along the Dutch coast. This project is one of the first members of the European Rewilding Network (ERN). It was here, where Dave and Anna met the spectacular European bison in nature for the first time in their life.

According to the Belgian TV-show “Dieren in nesten”, The European bison, the wolf, the brown bear, the wolverine, and the lynx are the “The Big 5 of Europe” – the continent’s five most impressive wild mammals. All these five are – and especially so the European bison which ranked as number 1 – among the symbolical species for Rewilding Europe and emblematic for the wildlife comeback in Europe.

From 26 to 30 March, Rewilding Europe organized a training seminar in The Netherlands for all the five project teams from the different European countries. The main subject was on natural grazing and communication, as these are two very important and challenging subjects in all our rewilding projects. This was the second training seminar that we organized, after the successful one on conservation enterprise development in Finland in October 2011.