Samenvatting

The Bison Hillock is an area in the Carpathians, Romania and one of the areas where the previously extinct European Bison (Bison bonasus) recently has been reintroduced. Although some research on the ecology of the European bison in other areas exist, there was little know about their ecology in the Carpathians. As a result, it is currently not well known how much debarking takes place and what species are targeted. This research is focused on the influence of debarking on the tree mortality in the Carpathian forest. To conduct this research, transects were walked in different areas: Areas with an artificial high density of European bison, areas with a low density of European bison, and areas with no European bison. During those transects, the tree species and the amount of debarking were measured.