Europe’s Bison Are Back — and They’re Quietly Healing the Continent

A century ago, Europe’s largest land mammal came within a hair’s breadth of disappearing forever. When the last wild European bison was shot in the Caucasus in 1927, fewer than 60 of the shaggy, ox-like giants survived anywhere on Earth — all of them in captivity. From that perilously thin thread, conservationists began rebuilding. Reintroduction efforts launched in the 1950s, and by 2026 the European bison had become, in the words of conservationists, one of the continent’s most successful wildlife recovery stories.

Over the past decade alone, the number of free-roaming European bison has climbed from around 2,579 to roughly 7,000, with the largest herds in Belarus and Poland. The animals now range across the UK, Romania, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Belarus and Lithuania. More than 100 roam the Southern Carpathians of Romania, while Bulgaria’s Rhodope Mountains have hosted a small but growing population since 2019 — the first wild bison there since the Middle Ages.

“When the last wild European bison was shot in the Caucasus in 1927, fewer than 60 of the shaggy, ox-like giants survived anywhere on Earth — all of them in captivity.”

What makes the bison’s return so valuable is not just the species itself but the work it does for the wider ecosystem. In British woodlands, bison act as natural landscapers: by grazing, felling small trees and stripping bark, they let more light reach the forest floor and open space for new plants to grow. In the Netherlands, bison shed their thick winter coats just as songbirds are nesting, and the birds gather the fur to insulate their nests. These are the kinds of quiet, cascading benefits that a single keystone species can ripple outward.

There may even be a climate dividend. A 2024 Yale University study suggested that a herd of around 170 bison in Romania could help capture and store carbon on a scale comparable to taking tens of thousands of cars off the road, by reshaping how grasslands and soils store carbon. From near-total loss to thriving herds that enrich forests, feed birds and lock away carbon, the European bison stands as a reminder that bringing back a lost species can heal far more than we expect.