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Somewhat curiously, there is another recently extinct animal the "Auroch" which was hunted to extinction as well. As recently as 1000 years ago they were quite plentiful, but completely extinct by the time Europeans started moving to the Americas

There have been some, let's say, 'interesting' attempts to recreate the species via back-breeding [0]. They seem to be having some success.

[0] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/nazi-super-cows-e...

Lions were also roaming Europe relatively recently, likely into the middle ages.

Fruska gora, a mountain region in Serbia, has acquired or were gifted 5 European bisons from Poland[0]. It's always heartwarming to see a country working extremely hard to preserve any species. It was devastating news for a lot of people that one of the bisons, Djuka, passed away recently (not to be confused with a Serbian politician Vladimir Djukanovic also known as bison Djuka[1]).

[0] https://www.gov.pl/web/srbija/poljski-bizoni-u-nacionalnom-p...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Đukanović

European Bison?

Yep, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_bison