Ten days ago, one of the females from the founder herd of the European bison roaming the Tarcu Mountains for over a year now, gave birth to a healthy calf. The now 7-year-old female bison arrived in the Southern Carpathians rewilding area in Romania in May 2014 as part of the reintroduction and rewilding initiative led by Rewilding Europe and WWF-Romania.

One year ago the European bison, the largest land mammal on our continent, returned to its old haunts in the Southern Carpathians. One year later, during a second major release event on 12 and 13 June last week, the number of animals doubled as a next step to create a viable population of free roaming bison in this Natura 2000 site.

Rewilding Europe and WWF Romania are thrilled to announce the second release of European bison to take place in the Southern Carpathians rewilding area on 12 and 13 June 2015. The herd brought into the acclimatisation area last year will be released into the wild, becoming the first bison to roam freely in the Southern Carpathians for over 200 years. In addition, a new herd of 18 European bison, originating from six different wildlife centres in Europe will arrive in Romania to be brought into the acclimatization area.

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.

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 just learned that the first little newborn bison calf in the Southern Carpathians has died, death probably caused by a horn. Unexpected and very sad news indeed.

Do you remember the little prince and his “Draw me a sheep!”? In the Southern Carpathians there is now a new version: “Draw me a bison!”. 40 enthusiastic local kids drew pictures of European bison during their Junior Rangers Camp in Poiana Marului from 3 to 7 July.

The new herd of European bison that was released in May in the Țarcu Mountains, Romania, now has a new member: a calf! The newborn is doing very well and as you can see from the photo it is already exploring the beautiful nature of the Southern Carpathians rewilding area. The little one was born in the night between 13 and 14 June and just recently our local colleagues and the bison rangers could say: “It’s a boy!”

Images from our bison release in the Southern Carpathians on 17 May 2014 can be found here. Please use the password “wisent” to download images. These images are copyright protected but may be published without cost, however only under the following conditions: A maximum of three (3) of the images are free to be used … Continued

The results of a bison feasibility study in the Southern Carpathians show that most habitats in the area are very suitable for the bison. The basins of Motrul Sec, Bahna and Sebes rivers each offer over 8000 hectares for the animals – an area big enough for the minimal population patch size for the European bison.