🦬 ביזונים חופשיים חוזרים ליערות אנגליה אחרי 6,000 שנה

For more than 6,000 years, there were no wild European bison living freely in England's forests, until this year. A conservation group recently released a small group of bison into an ancient forest in southeast England, as part of a project called 'rewilding,' which means bringing wild animals and wild spaces back to places where humans changed nature over hundreds of years. The European bison is the heaviest land animal in Europe and can weigh more than a ton, almost as much as a small car. But bison aren't just impressive to look at, they're also 'ecosystem engineers.' When they trample the ground, rub against tree trunks, and eat certain plants without touching others, they accidentally create a wider variety of homes for other creatures, insects, birds, butterflies, and even fungi that grow on the dead wood bison leave behind. Conservation scientists hope that within a few years the forest will look completely different, with more open clearings between trees, more varied plants on the ground, and as a result, more kinds of animals and insects returning to live there. This project is part of a bigger rewilding movement spreading across Europe, where different countries are trying to bring animals like bison, wolves, and eagles back to areas where they disappeared decades or even centuries ago.