European bison stand into the forest in Tarcu Mountains. The European bison (Bison bonasus), also known as the European wood bison, is a Eurasian species of bison. It is one of two extant species of bison, alongside the American bison. European bison were hunted to extinction in the wild, with the last wild animals being shot in the Bialowieza Forest (on the Poland-Belarus border) in 1919 and in the North-Western Caucasus in 1927, but have since been reintroduced from captivity into several countries in Europe, also in Romania. They are now forest-dwelling. They have few predators (besides humans), with only scattered reports from the 19th century of wolf and bear predation. European bison were first scientifically described by Carolus Linnaeus in 1758. Some later descriptions treat the European bison as conspecific with the American bison.It is not to be confused with the aurochs, the extinct ancestor of domestic cattle. In over 200 years since the disappearance of the current space Romanian bison, the bison population in Romania has reached nearly 100. In 1958 the species was reintroduced in Romania after two bison were brought from Poland to forest Slivut,near the town Hateg in Hunedoara county. Currently, the heaviest land animal in Europe can be seen in Romania in four reserves or released into the wild.Last two years ago some of the bison are released into the wild and they were the first to be released buffalo forever wild in the forest of Romania.
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