In the remote mountains of southern Romania, the forest was dying. Centuries of logging, farming, and hunting had stripped the land bare. Wildlife vanished, meadows collapsed, and what was once a thriving ecosystem had become a silent wasteland. Then, in 2014, conservationists made a bold and risky move: they released a herd of European bison — animals that hadn’t lived there in over 200 years. Many believed it would fail. The bison were huge, destructive grazers. The terrain was unforgiving. Even scientists doubted it would work. But they went ahead anyway. And then, just one year later, something happened that no one saw coming. What unfolded next changed the way people saw rewilding forever.