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George-Daniel Badileanu, a ranger for Conservation Carpathia, tiptoes through old-growth spruce forest holding a large antenna in his hand, a battery and receiver in his backpack.
喀爾巴阡保護基金會的巡山員喬治-丹尼爾·巴迪里亞努，躡手躡腳地穿過老齡云杉林，手中拿著大型天線，背包里裝著電池和接收器。
We are high above Nucsoara. Every now and again, as Badileanu angles the cross-rods through the trees, the receiver's beeping pulse rises like a quickening heart.
努索瓦拉在我們下方很遠的地方。巴迪里亞努在林中調整天線的橫桿角度，接收器的嗶嗶聲不時變得急促，像加速的心跳聲。
We're in range of the radio collars. I'm about to see an animal that we dream of, one day, being able to introduce at Knepp.
我們進入無線電頸圈的范圍里了。我即將看見我們夢想有朝一日能引進克內普莊園的動物。
I stumble after Badileanu across the spongy floor of bilberry bushes and moss, over fallen trees thick with lichens and a gushing stream banked with ferns.
我踉踉蹌蹌地跟在巴迪里亞努后面，走過長滿越橘灌木和苔蘚的濕軟地面，越過滿布地衣的倒下的樹木和潺潺溪流，小溪旁盡是蕨類植物。
A whiff of musk and clouds of flies tell us we're close.
一股麝香味和成群蒼蠅告訴我們目標就在附近。
Badileanu stops and points 40 yards ahead at arching silhouettes sliding like ghosts between the trees.
巴迪里亞努停下腳步，指向前方40碼處，弓背的黑影在樹木間如鬼魅般移動。
A herd of 12 bison passes before us, their woolly heads and crescent-moon horns swaying below hefty shoulders, long tails swishing from sloping rumps.
12頭野牛成群結隊從我們面前經過，毛茸茸的頭和新月狀的牛角在粗壯的肩部下方搖來晃去，長長的尾巴從斜斜的臀部甩過。
Their silhouettes conjure up the ocher figures of prehistoric European rock art.
它們的身影讓人聯想起史前歐洲巖畫上的赭石形象。
The Carpathians were one of the European bison's last strongholds after they'd been hunted out of the rest of the continent.
歐洲野牛在這塊大陸的其他地方被獵殺殆盡之后，喀爾巴阡山脈成了它們最后的幾個大本營之一。
They disappeared from Romania about 200 years ago. Breeding programs in zoos and private parks brought them back from the brink.
大約200年前，歐洲野牛在羅馬尼亞絕跡了。動物園和私人公園的繁殖計劃把它們從滅絕邊緣救了回來。
Around 7,000 European bison now roam rewilding projects across the continent.
目前約有7000頭野牛在歐洲各地的野化地區漫步。
The herd in front of me, introduced to Nucsoara in 2022, is one of eight established in the Fagaras and monitored with help from a 2020 National Geographic Explorer grant for Barbara.
我眼前的這個野牛群是在2022年引進努索瓦拉的，2020年的國家地理探險家補助金資助芭芭拉監控安置在弗格拉什山區的八個野牛群，它們正是其中一群。
The great beasts, the largest weighing 2,200 pounds, tear at tufts of grass tougher than any other extant European herbivore can digest.
這種大型動物最重可達1000公斤，能嚼食歐洲現存草食動物都難以消化的草叢。
In the winter they'll gnaw the bark of trees, sometimes killing them -- a random thinning that brings patches of light into the forest where flowering plants and shrubs can flourish.
冬天它們會啃咬樹皮，有時造成樹木死亡，像這樣的隨機疏伐會讓些許陽光照進森林，開花植物和灌木就能夠茁壯生長。
They'll make other impressions on this mountainside, pawing with their hooves and tossing turf aside with their horns, creating wallows like the bunkers on a golf course, which they roll in to rid themselves of fur and old parasites -- microhabitats for fungi, lichens, wildflowers, mosses, lizards, and insects.
它們會在這個山腰上留下其他印記，用蹄扒土，用角掘草，弄出很像高爾夫球場上的沙坑后，在里面打滾，去除老舊皮毛和寄生蟲--形成供真菌、地衣、野花、苔蘚、蜥蜴和昆蟲生活的微棲地。
And they'll be helping the climate too. Not far away, at the southern end of the Carpathians, a herd of bison introduced in 2014 have, according to the Yale School of the Environment, stimulated almost 10 times more carbon capture in nearly 20 square miles of grassland than before they were there.
它們也會對氣候有幫助。根據美國耶魯大學環境學院的調查，在不遠處的喀爾巴阡山脈南端，2014年引進的一群野牛讓將近50平方公里的草地的碳捕獲量增加到它們來之前的幾乎十倍。
Unlike the bears, the bison are often welcomed in Romania. Their memory is enshrined in place-names and folklore.
和棕熊不同，野牛在羅馬尼亞往往很受歡迎。關于野牛的記憶銘記在地名和民間傳說中。
In Leresti, about 50 miles from Nucsoara, a bison-themed visitors center is under way in the heart of the village. The mayor has named his local soccer team the Bison.
將近50英里外的雷瑞斯提鎮上正在興建野牛主題游客中心，就位在小鎮中心，而且鎮長已經把當地的足球隊命名為野牛隊。
I watch through my binoculars as slowly, purposefully, the bison shepherd three calves up to the alpine meadows to graze.
我通過我的雙筒望遠鏡，看著野牛緩慢又堅決地帶著三頭小牛爬上高山草原去吃草。
I could be gazing into the past but also, I realize, into the future.
我意識到自己可能是在凝視過去，也在凝望未來。
