in the world with around 1000 wild bison counted in 2014. Herds have also been introduced in Moldova (2005), Spain (2010), Denmark (2012), and the Czech Republic (2014). The Wilder Blean project, headed up by the Wildwood Trust and Kent Wildlife Trust, introduced European bison to the UK for the first time in 6000 years (although there was an unsuccessful attempt in Scotland in 2011, and the European bison is not confirmed to be native to England while the British Isles once used to be inhabited by now-extinct Steppe bison and Pleistocene woodland bison). The herd of 3 females, with plans to also release a male in the following months, was set free in July 2022 within a 2,500-acre conservation area in West Blean and Thornden Woods, near Canterbury. Unknown to the rangers, one of the females was pregnant and gave birth to a calf in October 2022, marking the first wild bison born in the UK for the first time in millennia. As below-mentioned, there are established herds in Spain and Italy, however European bison has not been recorded naturally from the Iberian and Italian Peninsulas, while these regions were once inhabited by Pleistocene woodland bison and Steppe bison. Numbers and distribution Numbers by country The total worldwide population recorded in 2019 was around 7,500 – about half of this number being in Poland and Belarus, with over 25% of the global population based in Poland alone. For 2016, the number was 6,573 (including 4,472 free-ranging) and has been increasing. Some local populations are estimated as: : 10 animals : 29 animals in 2021. : 1,962 animals in 2019. : Around 150 animals in northeastern Bulgaria; a smaller population has been reintroduced in the eastern Rhodope Mountains. : 106 animals in 2017. : Two herds were established in the summer of 2012, as part of conservation of the species. First, fourteen animals were released in meadows near the town of Randers, and later, seven animals on Bornholm. In June 2012, one male and six females were moved from Poland to the Danish island Bornholm. The plan was to examine if it is possible to establish a wild population of bison on the island over a five-year period. In 2018, it was decided to keep the bison on Bornholm, but maintained within the large fenced-in part of the Almindingen forest where originally introduced. In 2019, the bison that initially had