From a wooden transport box comes the restless snorting of a wild animal. Carefully, members of Rewilding Portugal and the European Bison Conservation Center climb onto the roof of the container, set in a clearing of the Côa Valley, a tributary landscape of the Douro. With firm pulls they raise the sliding gate. The animal inside – a young bull bison – has to step backwards, hesitates for a moment, and then turns and walks slowly but firmly into the open land.

This happened in the spring of 2024. For the first time in centuries, bison once again live in Portugal. Eight of these long-endangered ...

 

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