Bison in a hostile land: in the first year of these animals in Andújar, criticism from biologists persists

In the middle of a meadow of Mediterranean forest, between majestic valleys and steep cliffs in the Sierra de Andújar (Jaén), the 18 bison (and a new calf) that arrived just over a year ago from the cold peaks of Poland have left behind the mating season, where males fight furiously for females.

Quite a spectacle (similar to that of the deer bellowing) whose contemplation in Andújar is limited to a few apart from Álex and Jessica Hohne, the South African couple who acquired the El Encinarejo farm, and who are criticized by some conservationists and scientists for the introduction of these large herbivores.

, an "exotic species" formally classified as threatened and that had never before been documented in the Iberian Peninsula

, arrived as tenants in semi-freedom to the Andalusian estate .

Its presence in the warm pastures of Sierra Morena, endorsed by local institutions and the Junta de Andalucía, has caused a cascade of criticism among conservationists and scientists who have been warning of the impact of what they call "nature-spectacle".

"The Mediterranean ecosystem is totally inadequate to house a species that comes from Poland, and of course there are environmental consequences due to the affect they produce on other species already settled there," explains Carlos Nores, professor of Zoology at the University of Oviedo.

In his opinion, the geographical limit in which the bison move is in areas with average winter temperatures of minus five degrees, something that in Spain only occurs in the highest peaks of the Pyrenees.

In Andújar it is far from that in winter and in summer the highest average temperatures in the country are reached, above 45 degrees.

The animals live on the El Encinarejo farm, where access is restricted. Carlos Romero

The Junta de Andalucía, competent in the management of protected natural spaces, has authorized the presence of these bison in Andújar with the qualification of "zoological nucleus" and within a program to recover an endangered species.

However, a group of experts has asked the Andalusian Administration to modify the cataloging of the project so that it is officially recognized as a "benign introduction" as it is a

a threatened species present in an area that does not correspond to its natural area of ​​distribution.

The Andalusian Board, which has not responded to this newspaper's requests for comments, is currently ignoring the scientific theses, a silence that experts interpret as express acceptance of this controversial project.

The El Encinarejo farm, almost on the limits of the Sierra de Andújar natural park, remains fenced and its access is restricted by its owners, who only authorize, from time to time, small visits by groups of photographers specialized in wildlife .

This is the case of Carlos Romero, from the firm

, which has been able to follow the evolution of the bison that arrived in 2021 from Poland.

"Their adaptation is being very good to a privileged habitat, with many pastures and much more water than in other territories, although it is true that they support more heat than they were used to in northern Europe," says Romero, who describes it as "impressive ” the experience of capturing with his camera the life of these herbivores.

Faced with criticism, this photographer defends that this species "coexists perfectly" with other animals with which it shares territory, mainly deer, fallow deer and lynx.

Miguel Ángel Simón, who was the director and main architect of the Iberian lynx recovery project in this area, does not think so.

Simón warns of the impact on that feline of the trampling of the bison on the rabbit burrows, which are the main livelihood of the lynx.

"Of course there is a clear condition, it is not understood how the Administration allows exotic species to be introduced that are prohibited by national and international legislation itself," emphasizes Simón, one of the signatories of the letter sent to the Junta de Andalucía against the presence of the bison in this place.

Eduardo Díaz Alcázar, biologist and doctor in Wildlife Management, presents the arguments that lead him to advise against the presence of bison on these Sierra Morena farms: "It is a species from northern Europe that has never been here and that now they want to enter a territory where they can reach 45 degrees in summer,” says this wildlife expert who is a professor at the University of San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador).

Díaz has doubts that the carrying capacity of the farm has been evaluated, as well as the mandatory environmental impact report.

In addition, since these are animals that remain on a fenced farm, he understands that it is something that invalidates any genetic reproduction program for the species.

Also in the legal field there are many critical voices with the arrival of the bison to the Sierra de Andújar.

The lawyer Pedro Brufao considers that the project violates the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), as well as Royal Decree 630/2013, of August 2, which regulates the Spanish Catalog of invasive alien species.

"It is highly debatable that specimens weighing close to a ton be classified as a domestic animal, risk analyzes have not been taken into account and patrimonial liability in cases of accidents is not contemplated," says Brufao, who is Professor at the University of Extremadura specializing in Environmental Law and author of several studies on trade in flora and fauna.

Brufao recalls that the community regulations themselves oblige Spain to protect their habitats and the species linked to the Mediterranean ecosystems, warning that the bison supposes "a presumable potential risk for them due to its high nutritional requirements as a large herbivore".

In the past year, the group has begun to grow with new offspring.Carlos Romero

On the other hand, at the municipal level, the impacts of the

species in the Sierra de Andújar are minimized.

“It is neither an environmental disaster nor is it something innocuous, and the possible environmental impact is very relative;

the buffer capacity of Mediterranean landscapes is very high, they are natural spaces that have already been altered by man but, despite everything, maintain their ecological and landscape value", says biologist Alberto Puig, head of the Sustainability and Environment of the Andújar City Council.

Puig refers to the "high load of livestock and fauna" existing in that protected space (which is part of the Natura 2000 Network) due to the presence for years of deer, fallow deer and mouflons, the latter, he points out, another species classified as "exotic"

Far from repudiating the program, the Andújar town hall sees the arrival of the bison in its mountains as "an opportunity to place the municipality on the national and international map of ecotourism and nature tourism", in the words of the Councilor for Tourism, José Oria .

However, Professor Carlos Nores shows the concern of a good number of scientists "about the drift that nature-spectacle is taking, in which the proposals, the more extravagant they seem, the more attractive they are for many sectors of the population and the own Administration”.

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