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  • (ambient music)

  • - [Voiceover] In former times, Europe used to have

  • large mammals like the European wild horse, the auroch,

  • and also the European bison.

  • We lost the European wild horse, we lost the auroch.

  • Both got extinct.

  • And we nearly lost the European bison.

  • Rewilding Europe is a new conservation initiative

  • in Europe, trying to make Europe a wilder place.

  • The bison plays a very important role.

  • We say it is a keystone species in European landscapes.

  • Because of its grazing and browsing behavior,

  • it has an impact on the vegetation and the landscape,

  • and that brings new species in the system, in fact.

  • (contemplative music)

  • We're here in Armenis in Romania.

  • These bison that have been brought here today

  • have traveled a few thousand kilometers by road.

  • People from the local community,

  • from the municipality, the mayor is here.

  • There's a whole community around Armenis, which, of course,

  • is very interested and also excited

  • about this initiative.

  • The animals get out of the truck,

  • they don't run away, they just hang around.

  • They put their horns in the ground,

  • and they start fighting with each other.

  • It's their way of trying to get used to a place.

  • We release them in small groups

  • into a small area, then we release them into the wild.

  • (ambient piano music)

  • Everybody knows Europe having fantastic cultural heritage,

  • but we also have a beautiful natural heritage.

  • It's amazing to see how nature responds,

  • and how species come back.

  • It would be a tragedy if we would lose another big mammal.

  • What we hope, of course, as Rewilding Europe,

  • is that large herds of bison can roam our landscapes again,

  • and people can enjoy it.

(ambient music)

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