Deep dive: European bison (plus weird tree shrimps and slimy jawless fish)

Zoology Ramblings

Welcome to episode 25 of Zoology Ramblings, where Robi and I do a deep dive into European bison.

Before we do, we talk about very bizarre animals of the week, featuring the slimy, jawless hagfish and an expedition that led to the discovery of tree-dwelling shrimps the size of a grain of sand!

For our deep dive, we delve into how bison were almost completely eradicated from Europe, and how restoration efforts and careful breeding have allowed bison numbers to recover across the continent.

We talk about how bison have been reintroduced (technically) to the UK at the Wilder Blean Project in Kent, and what their plans are for continuing to monitor the impacts of bison as the herd grows.

We talk about the numerous ecological benefits that bison can offer, and look at how using management strategies for African wildlife could be applied to bison in the UK.

We end by ranking the bison out of 10 in terms of its suitability for widespread reintroduction across the UK, and ask you, our lovely listeners, to tell us which species you'd like to hear more about in these deep dives.

Next week, we'll be back to our normal podcast structure. See you in the next episode!

As ever, thanks to Allie for the lovely piano interlude and thanks to you amazing listeners for sticking with us on our long rambles.

We hope you enjoyed our bison deep dive!

Emma and Robi

To see what we're up to elsewhere check us out on:

@emma_hodson_wildlife

@robi_watkinson_wildlife