Project Wisent Thal – First bison born in the Solothurn Jura – News

A herd of bison was brought into an enclosure last autumn as part of a project – now there are offspring.

The bison is the largest mammal in Switzerland. The animal has not been found in the wild for many years, only in zoos or animal parks. However, an association would like to resettle the bison in the Solothurn Jura. Last fall, the first five animals were placed in an enclosure for an experiment.

Now a young has been born – a first success. The calf was born on Tuesday night and is still unsteady on its feet. The project managers are delighted. “It’s very emotional,” says bison ranger Benjamin Brunner. «A great pleasure. The intention was to do a breeding program. That’s started now.”

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The calf, a female, was born on Tuesday night in the enclosure on Sollmatt.

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The young animal’s mother is the youngest of the three wisent cows living there, as the Wisent im Thal association announced.

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The test herd now has a four-year-old bull, three cows between the ages of four and six, a calf from last year that was not born at Sollmatt, and the youngest newcomer.

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According to the association, bison are generally shy and gentle animals. But if they were irritated or prevented from protecting the young animals, they could also become dangerous like other cattle.

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After almost ten months, the herd of bison has grown to six animals, which are currently still living in one enclosure. In the long term, however, the animals should roam freely in the Solothurn Jura. This worries some farmers. A farmer has fought the project up to the federal court, others have also resisted.

Worry about additional damage

The managing director of the Solothurn farmers’ association is still skeptical about another wild animal. “The wild boar is a big concern for us,” says Edgar Kupper, Managing Director of the Solothurn Farmers’ Association. “It does a lot of damage. The deer will come, it will cause great damage in the forest and meadowland. Now they also want to let the large wild animal wisent run free. This will cause high damage potential in the arable crops in a short time.”

The project managers do not believe in major damage to farmland. A small fence is enough to keep the bison away. It’s different in the forest. Here you can see clear signs after the first few months.

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Damage caused by the bison can be seen on the trees in the forest.

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However, in this enclosure there is a 20-fold higher density of bison, says Otto Holzgang, project manager Wisent Thal. “In a natural area, these six animals that we have here in the enclosure, including the calves, would naturally roam 20 times as large. So the damage would be spread over a 20-fold larger area.”

It will take at least nine years for the bison to be able to roam freely in the Jura. During this time there should still be many young animals.