Dragoș Vodă Bison and Carpathian Wildlife Reserve

The „Dragoș Vodă” Bison and Carpathian Wildlife Reserve lies in Vânători-Neamț commune, north of the DN15B national road between Vânători-Neamț and Pipirig, in the southern part of the Sabasa Mountains (part of the Stânișoara Mountains). It is a wildlife nature reserve (IUCN category IV) of about 11,500 ha, included in Vânători-Neamț Natural Park, and was re-designated as a protected area by Law no. 5/2000. The reserve was founded in 1968. The first bison, three animals brought from Poland, arrived in 1970, and in 1974 the first calves were born here in captivity. To avoid inbreeding, animals from other breeding centres were brought in over the years. In 1974-1975 scenes from the films „Frații Jderi” (The Jderi Brothers) and „Ștefan cel Mare - Vaslui 1475” (Stephen the Great - Vaslui 1475) were shot in the reserve. From 2010, with European funding, the reserve ran a programme to return bison to the wild, and on 22 March 2012 the first release of bison into the wild in Romania took place here. In February 2025 the park administration reported more than 80 bison, over 70 of them free-ranging, about ten in the 180 ha acclimatisation enclosure and six in the zoo. Bears, red deer and roe deer also live in the reserve. The visitor area includes the visitor centre and a zoo of about 4 ha where bison can be seen at close range; the reserve also has three ponds (the Bison, Deer and Roe Deer ponds). The park administration runs guided walking tours of about two hours inside the acclimatisation enclosure, starting from the visitor centre.