Today, an important step has been taken for the rewilding of the Central Apennines, by the signing of a Memorandum of understanding between Rewilding Apennines and the Abruzzo National Park. The document was signed by Antonio Carrara, President of the Abruzzo NP and Alberto Zocchi, Chairman of the Rewilding Apennines Association and leader of the local rewilding team.

The final medical results from the National Veterinary Authority in Bucharest, Romania, confirm that at least two out of the three bison that died last week at the bison release site in the Țarcu Mountains, were infected by Bluetongue virus.

The European Rewilding Network was officially launched on October 9, 2013, at the World Wilderness Congress in Salamanca, Spain. Since then, it has grown to 34 members from 18 countries. Three member-events covering specific rewilding subjects took place and this year one more is planned for November.

Three out of the 17 European bison that were reintroduced to the Southern Carpathians last May, have died over the last weeks. Rewilding Europe and WWF-Romania are now together with the National Veterinary Authority in Bucharest carefully studying what the reasons for this very sad news might be.

With this, one more step is taken along the road towards landscape rewilding through restoring the natural grazing by wild keystone species.

A young male Apennine brown bear was found shot dead in mid-September, just outside the village of Pettorano sul Gizio. After a few days of investigation, the culprit was found and he confessed that he had deliberately shot the bear as it kept on visiting his chicken pen. This sad story can surely teach us a lesson…

“How do we involve and work together with local stakeholders” was the subject of the third experience-sharing event for members of the European Rewilding Network, on September 23, in good discussions between the attendants.

Rewilding Europe today launched its new study “Rewilding horses in Europe”. It is the first of its kind on this exciting topic, providing the necessary background information as well as practical guidelines.

The 17 European bison brought back to the Tarcu Mountains in May by Rewilding Europe together with WWF Romania are now roaming in a 160 ha area, ten times larger than the quarantine area (±15 ha) in which they spent their first four months after arrival.

We are now beginning to make our publications available through iBooks! The first one is the main brochure about Rewilding Europe (2012).