While their grazing may not have looked like any more than the average feeding time for these creatures, their actions were fundamental to the natural development of diverse and dynamic habitats within a complex, healthy and functioning ecosystem.
Grazing was, and remains, the most natural and effective way of managing many habitats, shaping the land in ways that human interventions and machinery simply cannot replicate.
While foraging in the landscape they make holes with their hooves and flatten areas, creating microhabitats, which are incredibly important for a whole host of insects. This action also creates patches of bare ground where plants can set seed – again something which allows less abundant species to thrive.
Luke Massey/2020VISION
Grazing animals can often reach places that machinery and man-made interventions cannot, all the while preserving the landscape's natural beauty.
As our county has continued to lose many of its large herbivorous species over time, its wonderful landscapes and wildlife have come under increasing threat from pollution, habitat loss, habitat fragmentation and our changing climate. Earlier this year, the landmark State of Nature 2023 report showed that nature is continuing to decline at an alarming rate across the UK, which is already one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world.
In order to enable nature to adapt to climate change and create healthier, happier, and more prosperous communities, we desperately need wilder and more natural areas to help wildlife recover.
That’s why we are working with our partners and funders to secure more space for nature, introduce nature based solutions and let nature take the lead through rewilding to put these lost processes back.
Matthew Roberts
Reinstating the actions of our lost wild herbivores is one of the ways we can do this either utilising domestic livestock or reintroducing keystone species, to manage a site for wildlife, whether it be grassland, woodland, wetland or scrub. Different types of livestock, together with wild species, including, cattle, ponies, pigs red deer, elk and bison contribute to creating and maintaining wildlife rich landscapes.
These animals forage bramble and trees to create a mosaic of habitats; graze grass and vegetation to different heights to create habitats for invertebrates; encourage wildflowers to grow providing pollen and nectar for invertebrates; increase food available for birds; and ultimately lead to more diversity in the nature. They can even affect the amount of carbon being stored in the plants and soil and reduce the risk of wildfires by managing the flammable vegetation present on land.
Whilst the benefits of large herbivores are plentiful, their presence must also be carefully considered to prevent potential damage to habitats. Each herbivore behaves slightly differently and shapes the land in different ways which will determine which species can thrive in that space.
Putting a certain type of herbivore onto a site without first considering that the ecological benefits could be detrimental. Cows may suit one area, whereas pigs may be better elsewhere. Only introducing the same animals at the same time of year, on the same cycle is simply not complex or dynamic enough to work towards creating resilient ecosystems and landscapes. The number and type of herbivores needed may fluctuate, responding to the availability of food, and finally, the timing of grazing will be unique to each site and each year, responding to annual variations in weather and vegetation growth seasons.
Jon Hawkins - Surrey Hills Photography
Derbyshire Wildlife Trust own and manage several sites where herbivores have been grazing and managing the land for nature for many years, but there is more to do here. We continue to explore even better ways of reinstating natural processes to build more resilient landscapes and are encouraged by the successful reintroduction of Bison in Kent and in pigs at Knepp which are showing what can be achieved.
Tamworth pigs at Knepp have taken on the role of an old breed very much like the wild boar, renowned for their hardiness. Their presence and disturbance to the soil has allowed pioneer plants like sallow to colonise providing a food source for the purple emperor butterfly to return and grow. Solitary bees have colonised, anthills have emerged to provide food for green woodpeckers, and so-called ‘weed’ species such as chickweed, scarlet pimpernel, vetchlings, common fumitory, knotgrass and red fescue have returned to provide a food source for the critically endangered turtle dove.
The pigs may have also had a positive effect in the battle against climate change. A recent study shows that rootling by pigs (mixing up leaf litter and organic matter on the forest floor with the mineral soil) increases the stability and storage of carbon in the soil.
We will continue to review the benefits of different small and large herbivores and the feasibility of their various attributes building a more diverse and resilient landscape here in Derbyshire.
