Pony stars of Sir David Attenborough documentary Wild Isles welcome new arrivals at Wicken Fen
A Konik pony has been born at a nature reserve whose battling stallions featured in a recent episode of Sir David Attenborough's latest nature documentary.
Breeding season has kicked off at the National Trust's Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire where the hardy equine breed was introduced in the early 2000s.
Konik ponies leave water-filled hoofprints and piles of dung as they go which can help attract new species of flora and fauna to the lowland landscape and improve biodiversity.
The newest arrival was born on Friday, as the oldest pony in the herd, Tim, prepares to turn 30 this year.
Foals are usually born between late March to May following an 11-month gestation and mares are ready to conceive again around a month after giving birth.
During the foaling season, stallions can be seen rearing up on their hind legs and sparring in an attempt to establish dominance ahead of the next breeding season.
A challenge to one of the dominant males featured in the latest episode of Sir David Attenborough's Wild Isles on BBC One - which saw two stallions battling it out for supremacy with a series of powerful kicks.
Grazing ranger Carol Laidlaw, who has looked after the herd for more than 20 years, said breeding season was beginning to expand slightly - something she put down to milder winters.
Ms Laidlaw has been a steady presence for the last two decades.
"I believe I am known and recognised by the herds," she said.
"Some individuals might actively seek out my company, while others regard me with a wary acceptance.
"The horses form their own social groups, and I interfere with that as little as possible.
"They tend to move around as one herd, but within it there are little groups.
"It's fascinating, watching the different groups, and it is also heart-warming, because we have mares and stallions who show each other a lot of loyalty, and there are groups that have been together for 20 years or more."
The National Trust said Wicken Fen is "one of the most biodiverse places in the UK", with more than 9,000 different species, including fen ragwort, fen dandelion and fen violet, as well as reed leopard moths and bitterns calling it their home.
Ms Laidlaw said the grazing and social behaviour of Konik ponies and Highland cattle on the fen creates a "slowly changing, varied landscape".
"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," she said.
"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."
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