On May 17, Europe’s largest living wild land mammal, the European bison, will be brought back to the Țarcu Mountains in the Southern Carpathians rewilding area, in Romania. It has been extinct from the area for 200 years. About 20 European bison will be brought here from several European countries. Later on this summer 10 more will be taken here. This is the biggest-ever bison reintroduction and transportation to have taken place in Europe.

Joep van de Vlasakker from Rewilding Europe was one of the passionate speakers at the TEDxEroilor event in Romanian Cluj-Napoca recently, talking about the fascinating European bison. “Challenging minds” was the theme of this fifth edition of TEDx here, and Joep did precisely that, challenging and amazing the specially invited members of the audience with a number of bison stories. He started with “Once upon a time”, and ended with “Coming soon, to a place near you”.

Ten enthusiastic locals from the Southern Carpathians in Romania, participated in the first nature guide training event organised by Rewilding Europe, in April in the village of Armeniș.

The small municipalities of Gioia dei Marsi and Lecce nei Marsi in the Central Apennines have decided to bet on nature and to find new ways to earn money from the wilderness on their own “door step”. Creating new opportunities for local businesses and at the same time ensuring an even better protection of those areas. Land abandonment and depopulation are problems that hundreds of regional and EU initiatives so far have failed to solve, in spite of uncountable amounts in subsidies. But now, thanks to the beginning return of wild nature, these problems could instead be made into opportunity. Gioia dei Marsi and Lecce nei Marsi give a good example how the problems are turned into opportunities.

The first experience sharing event organised by the European Rewilding Network took place on April 10. During the webinar, which as its name implies is a web-based seminar, many valuable experiences from rewilding were exchanged between members of the Network.

Twelve Boskarin cattle (five cows, five heifers and two calves) were transported at the end of March to the Tauros programme breeding site in the Velebit mountains in Croatia. According to the latest information the animals are doing well at their new home. This is the first time Boskarin cattle have been brought to Velebit. It is a part of the rewilding efforts by Rewilding Europe and the Tauros programme’s plans to de-domesticate or rewild primaeval cattle breeds back to get close to its original form: the aurochs. Because the ecosystems really need this animal.

The full and detailed information about the European bison reintroduction in the Rothaar mountains(Rothaargebirge) – including the scientific research results – is now available, in the book “Wisente im Rothaargebirge” (print and online).

Seven different hides are now available for wildlife watching and photography in the Campanarios de Azaba Biological Reserve, on the Spanish side of the Western Iberia rewilding area. Spring is the best season to visit this area and to enjoy its opulent nature, strong colours, magnificent landscapes and unique biodiversity.

Denmark most probably now has its first wolf family since over two centuries! “Ulvetracking Danmark” (UD), a group of wolf enthusiasts in Denmark, have gone to great lengths to register the sounds of the Danish wolves, recorded in Jutland in January. Holly Root-Gutteridge, an English wolf expert and PhD student at Nottingham Trent University, believes that these howls stem from an entire wolf family. This means that Denmark in 2013 probably had its first wolf pups born in the wild for well over 200 years.

The beavers that were filmed in February 2014 were reportedly the first sightings of this species in England since centuries. Three European beavers, believed to have been adults, were filmed together on the River Otter in east Devon and could be seen gnawing at the base of trees, grooming themselves and playing together, media informed.