Date: 26.05.2026
Trophic rewilding by large herbivores supports insect diversity, Czech scientists find
Insects are declining across Europe. Czech scientist have determined this decline can be mitigated by returning large ungulates – horses, aurochs cattle, and wisents – to landscapes. This has been shown by a recent study by a group of researchers from the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences (BC CAS), who surveyed five insect groups across eleven sites rewilded by large ungulates in Czechia. Their results have just been published in the Journal of Applied Ecology.
Image above: Wisents at the refaunated locality Milovice. Photo: Michal Köpping.
“We were curious whether the return of large herbivores could at least partly replace those ecological processes which were lost from the landscapes by megafauna demise,” said entomologist Martin Konvička from BC CAS, the senior author of the study. Megafauna, i.e. large herbivores from big bovines and wisents to mammoths, shaped European habitats for eons, but were mostly extirpated by human actions. Most insect taxa display highly exacting habitat requirements and rapidly react to any environmental changes.
More pollinators and orthopterans
The research was carried out for nearly a decade at 11 separate sites trophically rewilded by the Česká Krajina NGO (Czech Landscape). This conservation group has played a crucial role in returning large ungulates to Czech habitats, establishing ideal conditions for studying their impacts on natural environments. Ecologists could thus compare land units grazed by large ungulates – Exmoor ponies, Tauros cattle, and wisents – with ungrazed adjoining lands. The scientists found increased species richness and abundance of bees and wasps and grasshoppers and crickets at the ungulate-affected lands. Species richness of another three studied groups – butterflies, moths, and ants – neither increase nor decreased. “The effects were group-specific; but importantly, we observed no decrease under the influence of ungulates,” said entomologist Dr. Jan Walter.
Aurochs at the refaunated locality Milovice. Photo: Michal Köpping.
Species traits more important than species richness
A crucial finding of the study is, that presence of large ungulates substantially transformed the species composition of insect assemblages. Species that benefit from large ungulates presence are smaller and less mobile, with more exacting habitat requirements, utilising short herbs and capable of surviving in grazing-affected environments.
“Large ungulates generate a diverse mosaic of conditions, from sparsely grazed spots to patches of barren land. And it is this diversity of conditions which is crucial for many insects,” Konvička explained.
Return of evolutionary engineers
The majority of extant insect species have evolved in times when European landscapes were modelled by abundant and diverse megafauna. After their demise, megafauna impacts on ecosystems were replaced by traditional land management, which included the continuous presence of cattle, horses, and other animals on the land. Modern industrial agriculture and plantation forestry, however, radically transformed landscape functions. Returning large ungulates thus emulates the natural disturbance regimes they originally provided, restoring missing ecological processes which can mitigate the impacts of current intensive land uses.
Exmoor horses at the refaunated locality Josefovské louky. Photo: Vojtěch Lukáš.
The authors warned that this approach may not be a panacea. Some insect species may be locally suppressed, namely those requiring tall grasslands, or little disturbed land forms. “Diversity of disturbance regimes is what matters – including a combination of grazed and ungrazed regimes. In sufficiently large rewilded land units, the natural activity of the ungulates, plus activity of predators, would provide this automatically,” Konvička added.
Returning large ungulates thus represents a promising natural tool for conserving insects and other organisms and for restoring landscapes’ ecological functions. It offers an interesting alternative for costly habitat management in many protected land areas.
“Large ungulates are more than a wilderness symbol. They are crucial landscape architects, true engineers of the diversity of life,” Konvička concluded.
Wisents at the refaunated locality Milovice. Photo: Michal Köpping.
The study is available via Open Access.
Walter J., Fric Z. F., Filippov P., Jirku M., Klimes P., Machac O., Perlik M., Potocky P., Ricl D., Spitzer L., Vrba P., Konvicka M. 2026. Trophic rewilding restructure the insect communities according to their functional traits: Insights from a multitaxa study. Journal of Applied Ecology DOI: (BC CAS authors are in bold). DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.70399 https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.70399
