“It’s like we’re in Jurassic Park »whispers Adrian Grancea. With binoculars around his neck, he advances as silently as possible over the carpet of dead leaves. The path climbs between an electric fence and a wooden barrier. Suddenly, two deer appear, like two bouncing balls thrown between beech and birch trees. The bison will only appear a little further away. Their tails, constantly moving, allow them to be detected. Seven females, with coats of scorched earth, arched horns and long goatee, enjoy the sun. Three males reveal their enormous silhouettes among the trees. “I am super happy with this group, the bison do not fight and they have already mixed”Mr. Grancea is delighted.
A few days earlier, at the end of May, the head of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) bison project in Romania welcomed these animals about fifteen kilometres from Armenis, in the south-west of the country. First ten youngsters came from a reserve in Germany, then four from Sweden. Almost every year since 2014, individuals have been transported to the Tarcu Mountains in the Southern Carpathians. After hours of transport, a truck arrives in this green, mountainous region, dotted with villages with low, colourful houses. The road quickly leads into a valley dominated by huge trees.
In front of the entrance to the “acclimatization zone”, a vast enclosed space of 13 hectares In the middle of the forest, the track widens enough for the truck to turn around. Its doors open and the bison runs off, crossing a bridge and climbing a small hill. The operation can take two or ten hours. Upon arrival, the herd from Germany went back down the hill to pick up a female that remained frozen inside the vehicle.
In mid-July, the barriers of the acclimatisation area were opened and the 14 bison were introduced to their new playground: a vast wilderness of more than 160,000 hectares, which contains one of the last remaining virgin forests in Europe. Armenis, a town with 2,230 inhabitants, is situated between four national parks and a nature reserve. Today, around 180 bison live here.
From “vulnerable” to “near threatened”
The reintroduction of the largest land mammal on the continent is one of the success stories conservation. The story of a charismatic animal rescued from prehistoric times, driven to extinction, and narrowly saved thanks to the crazy initiative of a handful of Europeans. One hundred years ago, the Bonaso bison – Unlike the American bison, it is declared extinct in the wild. With an elongated head and a hump at the shoulders, there are 54 individuals left on the planet, all in captivity. Only twelve will produce offspring. Today, there are more than 9,100 bison across Europe, of which almost 7,000 live in the wild in a dozen countries, including Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, Russia and Romania.
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