Spain is going through one of its worst forest fire crises in history and, with climate change fuelling increasingly intense and hard-to-control blazes, scientists and environmental managers are looking for new ways to reduce the risk.
Among them is a somewhat unusual proposal: bringing back large herbivores, such as the European bison, to help keep in check the undergrowth that feeds the flames.
The idea rests on a simple principle: if there is less combustible material in the forest, fires will find it harder to spread. However, researchers warn it is still too early to know to what extent this species can play that role and stress that, in no case, would it replace traditional forest management work.
One of the arguments supporting this hypothesis is the animal’s diet itself. Fernando Morán, a vet and founder in 2008 of the European Bison Reserve and Interpretation Centre, explained to Euronews a few years ago that "One of the animal’s characteristics is that it eats wood, scrub, bushes, tree vegetation, leaves and branches, which are all combustible material... If nobody eats it or removes it, it is liable to burn".
He added: "What it doesn’t eat, it breaks, either by trampling it or hitting it with its head." That is why he argues that "It is a natural firefighter, or 'wild firefighter', appointed by nature".
