Dangerous animals re-appear in Hungary after 100 years
Bison used to live in Hungary once upon a time, but by the beginning of the 20th century, they were all exterminated. The species only survived thanks to zoos. But now because of a unique project, they can live in the wild in a unique part of the country.
Őrség National Park has moved wild European bison next to Kondorfa, to a 70-hectare territory, which has been closed off from people and given back to nature. Csaba Németh, deputy director of Őrség National Park, talked about the bison reserve to InfoRádió, he said that they have been thinking about a place where nature could “operate on its own” in Central Europe where human agriculture has such influence, ever since the national park’s founding in 2002, wrote infostart.hu.
They have also been giving some thought to which large species could have lived here but since have disappeared, that would make the scenery completely different. “So was the plan born, to bring European bison that lived here before, and formed the scenery with their nutrition, movements and behaviour. Let’s make a wilderness, where nature can operate as it did when it was still untouched,” explained Csaba Németh.
The territory chosen for this plan is located at the edge of Kondorfa, the Hungarian state purchased the real estate in the area for years. Now there are 70 hectares available to the animals. In the 1960-70s, these areas were mostly used as plows; now, they function as a lawn. But there used to be way more forest here than there is now. The deputy director says that there is no need to plant trees, as Őrség will take care of that; if an area is left alone, a forest will grow there. “The bison will regulate it, how much space the forest would take up.”