BACKGROUND
Urgent actions for the recovery of European Bison populations in Romania project area consists of Tarcu Mountains and Rusca Mountana – Tarcu – Retezat Corridor Natura 2000 sites which together cover around 83,000 ha. The area covers a wide variety of ecosystems – alpine meadows and grasslands, old beech and fir forests, steep cliff formations, and undulating mosaic landscapes with open grasslands intersected by woodlands with a mixture of deciduous tree species, including oak.
Although the region hosts a rich variety of wildlife species (wolf, Eurasian lynx, brown bear, red deer, roe deer, chamois, etc.) the ongoing, large-scale abandonment of traditional farmland has created an urgent need to re-introduce the lost wild-living large herbivores and boost up the numbers of the already living large mammals to maintain the diversity of these landscapes. Therefore, the vision for the area would also include having herds of European bison, red deer and chamois once again shaping the vegetation. This, in turn, will provide the basis for bringing back lost species such as the griffon vulture. The European beaver also had an old home in the Mountain Rivers – although it has been locally extinct for centuries. With the conservation measures and the ‘rewilding’ of the region, new economic opportunities will arise. The region has the potential to become a first class destination for both domestic and foreign visitors. Right now, it is an almost ‘forgotten’ corner of Romania. As bison specialist agree that the Carpathians have the highest potential in Europe for a meta population, a feasibility study was conducted by Catanoiu S. and R. Deju (2012), to prepare the re-introduction of the European bison.
PROJECT GOAL:
The overall aim of the LIFE RE-Bison Project is to enable the successful recovery of the European Bison in the Tarcu and Poiana Rusca Mountains in southwest Romania. With only around 1,450 free-living animals distributed in 14 isolated populations in the EU, of which only 5 populations (all in Poland) exceed 100 bison, the species is considered “vulnerable” and efforts should be made to create larger, self-sustaining populations. The low genetic diversity of some of these populations is an additional challenge.
The specific objectives of the project are:
- To establish one free living, genetically and demographically viable population of European bison with more than 100 animals selected, transported and reintroduced in Tarcu and Poiana Rusca Mountains, Romania;
- To establish a European bison breeding centre in Hunedoara Zoo that will support the reintroduction process on long term;
- To create new economic activities in the area using the bison as the main attraction;
- To reduce conflicts between free living bison and rural economic activities to stimulate a generally positive attitude amongst the local stakeholders in favour of the European bison;
- To increase the interest amongst the general public for the conservation of the European bison.
PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:
Support offered to the Urgent actions for the recovery of European bison populations in Romania local team to:
- Select and purchase at least 25 European bison individuals to the selected project site.
- Relocate and reintroduce at least 25 European bison individuals to the selected project site.
SPECIFIC TASKS OF THE CONSULTANT FOR POINT A. Selection and purchase at least 25 European bison individuals to the selected project site will be:
- in charge of selecting at least 25 specimens of European bison to be transported in Romania from Europe and Romania in the two reintroduction sites from Armenis and Poieni in 2018; the selection of bison specimens will be done in consultation with WWF Romania and with the written notice of acceptance for the selected specimens from WWF Romania project implementation team; will be in contact with the main sources of European bison in Europe to prepare a short list of available bison that are good to be purchased and relocated, based on age, sex ratio, pedigree and health criteria; will facilitate the signing of a framework contract between WWF Romania and the main sources of European bison; will negotiate a price/specimen and will facilitate the actual purchase of the individuals;
- coordinate the European bison collection; arrange the logistics with the breeders for the collection of the 25 selected specimens;
- create bloodline documents for each of the selected specimens on the long list – the selection of the individuals to be relocated and reintroduced will be based on these documents in order to avoid inbreeding as much as possible. The bloodline will be developed based on the information available in the annual Pedigree Books which collect all the available information on births, deaths, relocations of captive European bison; correlate the bloodline results with the genetic ones – if available;
- elaborate identification sheets for each one of the selected European bison individuals to be transported in order to help the recognition of the individuals during their captivity period in Romania, before the actual reintroduction into the wild;
- collect the blood and faeces samples in the country of origin of the European bison selected specimens that will be then tested in Romania – the mandatory tests according to EU legislation run by the National Sanitary-Veterinary Authority;
- coordinate and supervise the regular collection of faeces and blood samples from the field and in case of immobilisation of a roaming free specimen to be tested for diseases and parasite load– schedule to be agreed with WWF Romania project team; WWF Romania will be responsible for sending the samples to partner labs from Timisoara and Cluj-Napoca Veterinary Medicine Universities and Sanitary-Veterinary regional offices;
- work with veterinarian to collect DNA samples during immobilisations in the field; will send the biological samples to partner universities and labs; will obtain the genetic profile of the European bison specimens that will be transported;
- facilitate the relationship with the European Bison Conservation Centre – EBCC; will participate in meetings to maintain and extend the EBCC network of bison specialists and breeders; will participate in working groups on specific European bison conservation issues; will get the EBCC point of view on the list of specimens to be relocated to the reintroduction sites; will report to EBCC on the annual situation of the captive and roaming free population of bison managed by WWF Romania (with LIFE Re-BISON Project Manager consultation);
- develop and maintain a network of in-situ and ex-situ European bison breeders, both in Romania and abroad; will work with these breeders to adapt and improve the breeding process in order to better suit the long term reintroduction initiative in Southern Carpathians; will work to maintain and improve the breeding in Hunedoara Zoo and Vama Buzaului; will explore the possibility to develop new European bison breeding centres in Romania – e.g. Codru Moma Mountains, Hateg; will be done in consultation with LIFE Re-BISON Project Manager from WWF Romania;
- will contribute and represent the interests of WWF Romania in the development of a strategic plan for the conservation of European bison that will be done in 2018; will support WWF Romania project team in relations with the national authorities regarding conservation objectives for European Bison (e.g. preparing documents for/attending meeting if necessary with Ministry of Environment, National Agency for the Protected Areas and so on).
ANTICIPATED DELIVERABLES FOR POINT A. Selection and purchase at least 25 European bison individuals to the selected project site:
- monthly technical reports on the status of the activities to be carried out;
- short weekly reports by e-mail to LIFE Re-BISON Project Manager;
- the list of selected specimens to be purchased and relocated will be provided 2-4 months before the introduction data in to the release facilities;
- the bloodline and identification sheets for each selected individual;
- the medical reports from the National Sanitary Veterinary Authority;
- the annual report to EBCC;
- list with European bison breeders that will provide the European bison in 2018 (including contact data);
- one final report on the activities carried out at the end of the contractual period;
SPECIFIC TASKS OF THE CONSULTANT FOR POINT B. Relocate and reintroduce at least 25 European bison individuals to the selected project site will be:
- in charge with the selection of the transport company – will set up the criteria for the selection based on quality, price and the available budget in the project; will advise WWF Romania team on which company to select and will facilitate the signing of a contract on a negotiated fee;
- be the contact entity with the transport company to coordinate the logistics of the transportation of all the selected European bison – set up the pickup calendar, the itinerary, the details specific for the loading up of the animals in compartments, like age, weight, gender, but also specific for feeding and watering of the animals or other animal welfare aspects that have to be taken into account during long transportations;
- elaborate all the necessary transportation documents together with the veterinarian authorities, breeders, new owners of the captive animals in Romania and local vets – traces documents and certificates of origin for all the transported specimens;
- coordinate all the immobilizations done into the wild; will work closely with the veterinarians subcontracted by WWF Romania and breeding centres or zoos to establish immobilization protocols that are specific for each context – in which conditions e.g. places, timing, order of animals and substances to be used; will advise WWF Romania’s Project Manager upon the necessity or opportunity to carry out immobilizations in emergency cases or for fitting of GPS collars;
- advise WWF Romania project team on the necessity to carry out medical treatment for the semi-captive European bison; will do regular field visits to monitor the health status of semi-captive European bison, together with the subcontracted veterinarian and WWF field team – schedule to be determined together with WWF Romania team, depending on the situation; will set up a treatment protocol together with the veterinarian if certain symptoms are identified;
- work closely with the subcontracted veterinarian and with rangers to decide the necessity of immobilization of free – roaming European bison and implementing it with WWF Romania field team; decide the in the work of establishing and implementing immobilization, necessity of feeding, collection of blood and faeces, necropsy and medical treatment protocols based on field visits to monitor health status of the free – roaming European bison; will advise WWF Romania team to ask for culling derogation in case of TBC disease outbreak (or other diseases outbreak) that risks to kill the entire population;
- will carry out the drop-off activation to retrieve all the broken collars or with exhausted battery; will be the direct contact with the producer of the collars for any technical assistance issues regarding collars, data plans or database platform; will advise WWF Romania on the necessity of sending the non-working collars to be fixed or to have the batteries replaced;
- develop and coordinate the implementation of a feeding protocol – calendar and feeding places and methods – together with the subcontracted veterinarian, that will take into account the period of the year and captivity conditions in order to keep the immune system up, reduce the metabolic stress during the acclimatization and to increase the survival probability of the roaming free population or to mitigate the potential bison-human conflicts;
- develop and coordinate the implementation of a soft-release protocol that includes the calendar of the transition from acclimatization to rewilding enclosures;
- maintain and facilitate the relationship and contact between WWF RO and the representatives of the veterinarian medicine departments in various universities from Romania and/or abroad to develop and implement research programmes on relevant topics like animal welfare, pathology, genetics, reproduction; will coordinate the development of an internship programme based on specific research topics, developed together with professors; research programmes and internship program will be agreed with LIFE Re-BISON Project Manager.
- participate and represent the interests of WWF Romania in working groups organized to develop policies related to wildlife transportation, immobilization, relocation and emergency situations; will work closely with LIFE Re-BISON Project Manager for improvement of the existing legislation;
- maintain the relationship and contact with the regional representatives of the sanitary-veterinary authorities from the relevant counties for the reintroduction initiative – in Caras-Severin and Hunedoara– will work together with them on issues related to blood analysis, traces, necropsies and emergency situations.
ANTICIPATED DELIVERABLES FOR POINT B. Relocate and reintroduce at least 25 European bison individuals to the selected project site:
- monthly technical reports on the status of the activities to be carried out;
- short weekly reports by e-mail to LIFE Re-BISON Project Manager;
- list of potential transport companies with their price and service offers;
- transportation protocols specific for each case;
- traces documents;
- certificate of origins for each specimen relocated;
- immobilization protocol specific for each situation;
- medical treatment protocol – if needed for semi-captive European bison and for free-roaming European bison
- feeding protocol specific for each situation;
- soft-release protocol for each group of European Bison;
TIME FRAME: 30th of January 2018 – 31th of December 2018
REPORTS TO:
– WWF Romania Project Manager.
WORKS WITH:
– WWF Romania Project Manager;
– WWF Romania Project Officer;
– Project partners (mayors, veterinarians, bison rangers, foresters, etc.).
KEY REQUIREMENTS:
- Good coordination skills;
- At least 4 years of proven experience of the consultant or of the staff members of an organisation in working with European bison immobilizations, relocations and reintroductions;
- At least 4 years of proven experience of the consultant or of the staff members of an organisation in working in the conservation management of European bison.