Running Wild: European Bison Return to Romania's Carpathians
In early 2015, I co-authored a feature with Daniel Allen documenting one of the most significant rewilding projects in Europe: the return of European bison to Romania’s Tarcu Mountains, led by Rewilding Europe.
A Species on the Brink
The European bison once roamed from the Massif Central to the Volga and the Caucasus. Males stood two metres tall, weighing over 1,000 kilograms. But centuries of hunting wiped them from the wild — the last wild Polish bison was poached in 1919, the last Caucasus bison fell in 1927. By the 1920s, fewer than 60 individuals survived in zoos and private collections.
A studbook created in 1923 and careful breeding programmes led to the first wild releases in 1956. But even today, with around 3,250 in the wild, European bison remain rarer than the black rhino.
A Groundbreaking Approach
What makes the Tarcu project different from previous bison reintroductions is its ambition. Earlier programmes kept herds supplemented with food, prevented them from roaming freely, and maintained artificially low densities with negligible biodiversity impact. The Tarcu project aims for a fully self-sustaining population of 300 to 500 bison roaming completely free across the Carpathian landscape.
The Tarcu Massif — part of a 590 sq km Natura 2000 site already home to wolves, lynx, brown bears, red deer, and chamois — provides the ideal setting. Seventeen bison were first released into an acclimatisation zone, before being given full freedom. Animals were brought from herds across Europe to maximise genetic diversity.
Keystone Effects
As a keystone species, bison reshape their environment in ways that benefit entire ecosystems. Their grazing, wallowing, trampling, and fertilising create unique ecological niches for insects, birds, and mammals. They open up forest canopy, creating new habitats, and their presence changes predation dynamics for wolves and bears.
Community at the Centre
Rewilding Europe follows a bottom-up approach, engaging local communities from the start. In the villages around Armenis, a Bison Interpretation Centre now offers guided safaris and nature activities, local products are on sale, and young people like trainee ranger Adrian Miculescu have found careers that keep them connected to their landscape rather than leaving for work abroad.
This is the model that works: ecological restoration and economic opportunity, hand in hand.
Originally published in print, January 2015. Co-authored by Daniel Allen and Cain Blythe, with photography by Daniel Allen.