First foal of the season born at nature reserve
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- 30 Mar 2023
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A first pony of the season has been born at a nature reserve to help its biodiversity.
The konik foal arrived on Friday at the National Trust's Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve in Cambridgeshire.
The reserve's oldest member of the hardy breed, which originates from Poland, was born 30 years ago.
The ponies, leave water-filled hoofprints and piles of dung, that help attract new species of flora and fauna to the lowland landscape.
IMAGE SOURCE,AJAY TEGALA
Image caption,
Koniks play vital role in creating space for nature in one of Europe’s most important wetlands, the charity said
Koniks and Highland cattle were first introduced to Wicken Fen in the early 2000s from the Isle of Mull.
They clear "persistent shrubbery" and their arrival marked the charity's move from a combination of intensive mowing, cutting and scrub-bashing to more sustainable and climate-friendly conservation grazing, the National Trust said.
The trust's ranger Carol Laidlaw said: "They each graze in different ways - horses snip off selected plants with their incisors, creating a mosaic of cropped lawns, while cattle pull or tear at vegetation, leaving tussocks.
"This allows different types of vegetation to thrive and increases the diversity and complexity of habitats available to a wide range of species, from tiny dung beetles to mammals and birds like badgers and bitterns. Read More…
