Welcome to Bison Country
Trailing three rangers at the edge of Feneș village in the mountains of southwestern Romania, it doesn’t take long to find what we’re looking for: tracks of European bison. These gentle giants are making a comeback in places where they roamed freely two centuries ago, before hunting drove them to near extinction.
Nearby, Andrei Ponoran, a burly farmer, stands next to his tractor, taking a break from plowing his land while his wife hoes the earth by hand. Hearing the rangers say they’re accompanying a foreign journalist, he tosses out a question:
“You’ve come here to see our bison?” asks Ponoran.
Not just “the bison”. “Our bison”.
New neighbors
A program started by Rewilding Europe and WWF, in collaboration with the small town of Armeniș, released the first European bison in 2014, starting with 17 transported from zoos and reservations in Germany, Italy and Sweden. The animals were welcomed with fanfare and blessed by an Orthodox priest.
Today, after a series of reintroductions, the bison population has grown to about 250, which are concentrated in a 370-square-kilometer area (143 square miles) of mountainous forests in a remote corner of the Carpathians, an area of steep valleys and stunning beauty. Sixty per cent of the area’s bison population today were born here.