Australia released 26 Tasmanian devils into mainland bushland teeming with feral cats, betting their bone-crushing jaws could shift the balance of an ecosystem under siege. Scientists watched these scavengers move through predator territory, tracking how they hunted, fed, and left carcasses stripped bare.
In November 2020, two Tasmanian devils named Lisa and Lenny were released into the Barrington Wildlife Sanctuary in New South Wales, marking the beginning of a project to reintroduce the species to mainland Australia after an absence of roughly 3,000 years. The release was part of a larger effort involving 26 devils, all bred through a program run by the conservation group Aussie Ark. The goal was…
Bison were reintroduced to the long-grass prairies thirty years ago, an ecosystem that once flourished but had remained dormant for more than a century. Since then, their numbers have increased with
Bison were reintroduced to the long-grass prairies thirty years ago, an ecosystem that once flourished but had remained dormant for more than a century. Since then, their numbers have increased with no signs of slowing down.Long ago, herds of Europe’s largest land mammal moved by the thousands through ancient forests. They shaped meadows, spread seeds across entire regions, and created paths that…
In 1989, wildlife managers released 714 prairie dogs onto a former chemical weapons manufacturing site near Denver. The animals were intended to stabilize soil and control dust on land that had been
In 1989, wildlife managers released 714 prairie dogs onto a former chemical weapons manufacturing site near Denver. The animals were intended to stabilize soil and control dust on land that had been contaminated by decades of industrial activity. That modest assignment initiated a chain of ecological events that eventually supported the release of the black-footed ferret, the rarest mammal in Nort…
England bought the land for £425,000 after it was declared the deadest farm in the country, barren after decades of intensive farming. But instead of replanting crops, they introduced four beavers to a thousand acres, letting nature take over.
In 2021, Dominic Buscall had spent two years restoring wildlife at Wild Ken Hill when a trail camera in the marsh recorded a young beaver moving through water his parents had created in wetland once marked as farmland on old survey maps. The last confirmed beaver born in Norfolk lived before the reign of Elizabeth I. Buscall’s family had farmed these fields for 150 years, and no one in Norfolk had…
Argentina released three jaguars into a capybara-filled swamp as a bold rewilding experiment, hoping to restore a predator missing for decades. The big cats adapted faster than anyone predicted, hunting prey and breeding successfully in the dense marshlands.
In January 2018, a camera trap on San Alonso Island in Corrientes Province, Argentina, recorded footage that the research team had to review twice before acknowledging what it showed. Two jaguar cubs, alive and moving, had been born on Argentine soil for the first time in nearly 70 years. The field manager watched the clip four times before sending it to the team. She attached no text to the messa…
For 23 years, one Scottish family traded sheep for beavers, and the results stunned researchers. Their land, once overgrazed and barren, transformed into thriving wetlands that now support a complex web of wildlife.
In early 2002, Paul and Louise Ramsay released a pair of beavers into a drainage ditch on their family estate in northeastern Perthshire, Scotland. The estate had been in the Ramsay family since 1232, when King Alexander II granted the land to an ancestor. The beavers, a species extinct in Britain for nearly 400 years, were released without government permission.The first two animals died within m…
A U.S. rancher let the beavers back and the water did something insane.
In 1990, Maggie Creek was drying up every summer. The water ran fast and shallow, and by August it turned into a dusty gravel bed. It was too warm for trout. The willows were gone.That same year, a young rancher named John Griggs was hired at a cattle ranch covering roughly 200,000 acres. One of his first jobs was to take a box of dynamite to Maggie Creek and blow up a beaver dam. He knew one thin…
England released four bison into a dead forest, and what the animals did with bark and hooves stunned researchers. The rewilding project dropped the giants into woodland that had lost nearly all its trees, leaving an empty, silent landscape.
In July 2022, England released four European bison into West Blean and Thornden Woods near Canterbury, marking the first time wild bison had roamed Britain in 6,000 years. A bull joined the three females a few months later, but the females had already begun altering the landscape on their own. Within hours, the matriarch pushed through a thicket of rhododendron and stripped bark from a willow tree…
They released 11 beavers into a dead Scottish river, and what followed stunned scientists. The waterway had run dry, its wildlife gone, the land scarred by erosion.
In May 2009, a rewilding trial began in Scotland with the release of eleven Eurasian beavers into Knapdale Forest in Argyll. It was the first licensed mammal reintroduction in British history. The animals, captured in Norway and quarantined for several months, were released into freshwater lochs over two days. The species had not lived in Scotland for over 400 years.The project followed more than…
A family quietly removed their sheep from a Cornwall hillside, and the effects were immediate. Native trees and ferns began regrowing on land that had been grazed bare.
Temperate rainforest once covered a significant portion of the British Isles, but centuries of clearance for timber, agriculture, and development have reduced it to less than one percent of its former extent. For decades, this habitat loss received little formal attention. A private restoration project on a farm in Cornwall, begun in 2019, provided a working demonstration of how the ecosystem coul…