Six female bison imported from Czechia to help breeding in Spanish reserve

On Thursday morning, conservationists released six bison imported from Czechia into a nature reserve in northern Spain. The herd of the endangered species was provided to the San Cebrián de Mudá reserve by the Czech Landscape Conservation Society. Three female bison come from a reserve in Milovice, one from the Chomutov Zoo, and two from South Bohemia. The Spanish reserve has males, so the females from Czechia will help develop the local breeding.

"This is a historic event, because a comparable transfer from the Czech Republic has never taken place before," said Miloslav Jirků from the Czech Biological Center of the Academy of Sciences. The journey of the female bison to Spain was more than 2,100 km long and took about forty hours. They will also help prevent fires in the Spanish countryside. "Bison and other wild ungulates can also consume old dry grass that domestic animals do not graze … Therefore, with the progress of climate change and weather extremes, the popularity of bison in Spain is growing," said Dalibor Dostál, founder of the large ungulate reserve in the former Milovice military area.