[Animals] First foal of the season born at nature reserve

[MOHAMED]

The ponies, leave water-filled hoofprints and piles of dung, that help attract new species of flora and fauna to the lowland landscape.

First foals of spring 2023 at Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire
IMAGE SOURCE,AJAY TEGALA
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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.

"The breeding season for the koniks runs roughly from late March to October, but the season is starting to expand a little, presumably due to the milder winters we are having."

Two Konik pony's born at Wicken Fen nature reserve in Cambridgeshire 
IMAGE SOURCE,PA MEDIA
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The animals are "semi-wild" and can spar with each other

The first konik foal, Harry, was born on the reserve in 2005 and the first Highland calf, Meadow Rue, arrived a year later.

Konik stallions can sometimes rear up on their hind legs and spar with each other to show "dominance during the foaling season", the charity added.

The animals featured on Sunday night's Grassland episode of BBC One’s Wild Isles, narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

A konik pony
IMAGE SOURCE,PA MEDIA
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Koniks can form smaller social groups within the string, or herd, of ponies