According to Rewilding Portugal, the presence of the animals will stimulate biodiversity and support the growth of nature tourism.

The same source stated, that this was a pioneering translocation, with the animals coming from reserves in Poland.

“This is the first translocation of European bison to Portugal ever”, the document reads.

As large herbivores, the animals will “lessen the risk of catastrophic fires” by reducing flammable vegetation and creating natural firebreaks, while opening up forested areas, which allows “more light to come in and grass to grow instead of weeds”, according to the statement.

Fire outbreaks are becoming increasingly common in Mediterranean regions as climate change leads to more extreme temperatures.

“This problem is worsened by the fact that bushes invade areas where livestock disappeared as a result of rural depopulation”, justify the promoters.

The European bison will share the landscape with a herd of bulls, which was relocated to the Greater Côa Valley in 2023 and which recently moved to the same property.

“As a key species and emblematic of the rewilding movement, the European bison has the potential to be a climate and biodiversity hero. This is one of the reasons why the current return of this influential herbivore to European landscapes is so important, along with efforts to support population growth”, maintained the organisers of the initiative.

Although the European bison has not been recorded naturally in the Iberian Peninsula, remains of the extinct steppe bison, from which today's bison descend, have been recorded in the region.

The steppe bison became extinct about 10,000 years ago, after the last ice age, but the European bison - which coexisted with the steppe bison for tens of thousands of years in Europe - spread to eastern Europe, to the Volga River and the Caucasus Mountains.