The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

For the first time in 6,000 years, a bison is born in the wild in the U.K.

‘In a world that’s on fire, in this little corner of Kent, here’s this little ray of hope,’ said Paul Whitfield, director general of Wildwood Trust

October 27, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
A bison calf was born in South East England in September 2022. Once nearly extinct, conservation efforts have helped repopulate European bison. (Video: Donovan Wright)
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Tom Gibbs was getting worried. He was deep in the remote woodland of South East England, anxiously searching for Female 2, a bison that had strayed from the herd.

“You start to think of the worst-case scenario,” said Gibbs, a bison ranger at Kent Wildlife Trust, a British-based conservation charity.