THERE’S some familiar faces back at the Teifi Marshes nature reserve with the return of the resident water buffalo for another summer grazing the wetlands.

Three buffalo have arrived and will soon be joined by more of the herd and will be at the Cilgerran site managed by the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales until the autumn.

Water buffalo are fantastic conservation grazers and do a very important job for wildlife. Unlike cattle or ponies, water buffalo love getting their feet wet and wallowing in pools on the marsh.

They keep down invasive plants like willow scrub and reed mace and the pools they create for wallowing provide excellent habitat for damselflies, dragonflies, frogs, toads and newts.

These in turn provide an important food source for the resident otters and for birds such as egrets and herons.

A spokesman for the Wildlife Trust said: “The buffalo can easily be seen from the otter hide on the wetland trail and sometimes from the main visitor car park.

“Visitors should be aware that the fence around the buffalo enclosure is an electric fence and care should be taken especially with children and dogs.

“The buffalo form part of our management plan for the marshes, keeping the ponds and pools free of vegetation to encourage the breeding of amphibians and dragonflies. Having been here before, they have already settled in well.”

The water buffalo were first introduced to the Teifi Marshes back in 2002 and are ideally suited to graze and keep the marsh healthy.

Ponies had previously been utilised, but experience showed they were selective feeders, interested in only the lushest grass, so allowing scrub species, like bracken, rushes and brambles, to spread onto the marsh.