Translocation of 12 bison from Germany to Shahdag National Park in Azerbaijan Credit: Emil Khalilov / WWF
It was 7 years ago that the heavy wooden doors of transport crates slid open, and 12 European bison who had grown up in zoos suddenly were looking around, blinking at an unfamiliar wild landscape.
They were standing on the slopes of Shahdagh, or the King’s Mountain, northern Azerbaijan—their new home.
Together with the UN Environment Program Fund and the Azerbaijani Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, World Wildlife Fund spearheaded the effort to return the bison to the slopes of the south Caucasus, an effort ongoing across several European countries, including Portugal, the UK, and Romania.
Once native to most of Eurasia, these big-bodied ecosystem engineers lumbered freely around the whole of the continent before being fragmented, isolated, and hunted out of existence.
As has been the case with other animals, a West Europe zoo held the last remaining male member of the Caucasian bison population. He was bred with several European bison as part of an effort to restore the animal to Azerbaijan, which began in 2012 and culminated with the release of the first animals in 2019.
In Shahdagh, WWF Azerbaijan has slowly watched over the herd as it grew through the additions of 25 calves born wild so far.
“We now have a historic opportunity to restore our species,” said Elshad Askerov, head of WWF Azerbaijan, adding that the environment of Shahdagh was severely degraded during the Soviet period. “Soils and forests were severely overused, and many animals lost their habitats.”
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“The rewilding projects are very successful in Azerbaijan—they are a model for other Caucasian countries,” says Askerov. “We hope that eventually, these different herds will meet each other and become one big Caucasian population.”
Askerov suggested that there was a neighboring country—perhaps Georgia or Armenia—that was interested in replicating the project.
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Bison do more than just provide an opportunity for tourists to stop their cars and get photos (and occasionally gored) they shape the forest in a way few animals can. Their shaggy coats act as excellent seed dispersers. Their foraging controls understory vegetation and reduces fire risk.
Their dung provides food for plant and insect species, and their substantial mixture of weight and width breaks up and tramples their environment in such a way as to create a vibrant “mosaic” of grassland/woodland habitat where many different species can thrive.
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