Gardening With Animals?

Oostvaardersplassen is described as 'one of Europe's most controversial and influential rewilding projects'. This area, reclaimed by the Dutch from the North Sea in 1968, is roughly the size of Manhattan and only a 30 minute drive from Amsterdam. Oostvaardersplassen was basically created for the benefit of rare wild birds but Konik horses from Poland, Heck cattle from Germany and Red deer from Scotland were introduced to control vegetation. Males of these large grazers were not castrated and there was something of a scandal, when many of these animals died of starvation in the winter of 2017-18. Starvation was felt, by some ecologists, to be a natural form of population control but people didn't like the result. More recently, vets visit the site and 'excess' animals are culled, to be sold as 'wild meat' (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/21/pioneering-dutch-rewilding-project-oostvaardersplassen-works-to-rebuild-controversial-reputation-aoe). There are a number of points to be made about this 'artificial rewilding project'. The first is that genuine rewilding appears impossible in European areas. An area, the size of Manhattan, sounds big but it's actually tiny. For example, even the biggest 'natural park' in the UK, is incapable of accommodating the range of a single wild bear. Secondly, it has been known for decades that eliminating (or failing to introduce) large predators (like wolves or lynx), eventually results in the collapse of herbivore populations. Over-grazing destroys their habitat. Thirdly, population 'crashes' eventually occur, when animals cannot migrate from even the best-stocked areas (I did some of this work with bathtubs and mice, in my early scientific career). The birds can move but the herbivores are trapped. Finally, human choices essentially largely determine which animals are incorporated into such areas. Oostvaardersplassen, although being a useful and appreciated attraction, is certainly not a 'wild' location.