Sir David Attenborough recently put “rewilding” on the map in his documentary A Life On Our Planet “To restore stability to our planet we must restore its biodiversity, the very thing that we’ve removed… We must rewild the world!”

Whether you are new to the exciting concept of rewilding or someone who could give Sir David or George Monbiot a run for their money on nature restoration, we highly recommend the following 5 rewilding podcasts.  

These rewilding podcasts will inspire, educate and entertain. And in addition to their focus on rewilding, they cover topics that express the value of nature and show how adopting a sustainable lifestyle can reduce your environmental footprint.

Jack Humphrey, the podcast’s host, created the Rewilding Earth podcast to showcase the work of the people involved in preserving nature's building blocks, whether they be intact wilderness or key corridors and buffers surrounding wilderness, as well as the people invested in protecting and reintroducing extirpated species. You will meet conservation biologists, climate activists, naturalists, organizers, artists, and authors as Jack interviews all the key players in the challenge to rewild the world. 

Why Hunting Is Not Conservation with Kevin Bixby

Crista Valentino on the New Generation of Conservation Leaders

Jason Mark On Patagonia’s 9 Million Acre Gift

Listen to The Rewilding Earth Mission on these podcast providers:

iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, YouTube

Mossy Earth is a social enterprise on a mission to restore nature and fight climate change through its reforestation and rewilding projects.

So, our Eco side podcast aims to empower and educate listeners on rewilding, nature restoration and low impact living. Listen to inspiring wilderness tales that reflect how different individuals embrace the wild side of our planet and make it part of their life, as well as insights from experts in the field of rewilding, on the state of our natural world, and how to protect it. 

Listen to The Eco Side on these podcast providers:

3. The Reintroduction & Rewilding Summit Podcas‪t

Charlie Moores from the Birds of Poole Harbour and the host of The Reintroduction & Rewilding Summit interviews a series of wildlife restoration leaders, discussing the details, aims and inspiration behind each scheme. With many of these topics or ideas sometimes being considered controversial, these open discussions aim to lay all cards on the table, allowing listeners to hear about the processes, practicalities and outcomes of each of the projects and how they fit into a wider context of rewilding.

Meet Isabella Tree, who has been largely responsible for bringing rewilding to public attention through her brilliant book "Wilding"

Listen to The Reintroduction & Rewilding Summit on these podcast providers:

Not strictly a 100% rewilding podcast but the Science Focus podcast has released a number of interesting and engaging rewilding episodes over the last twelve months. 

Why rewilding success stories make us hopeful for the future 

Rewilding: Can it save our wildlife and temper climate change?

Samantha Alger: What can we do to save the bees?

Listen to The Science Focus on these podcast providers:

Knepp Wildland is the first major rewilding project in England and incidentally one of the inspirations for us starting Mossy Earth. The Wildland comprises of 1,400 hectares or 3,500 acres of former arable and dairy farmland in the grounds of Knepp Castle. Join their resident ecologist, Penny Green on the Knepp Wildland Podcast, and experience some of the wildlife wonders encountered, the secrets uncovered and the remarkable people who are part of the Knepp Wildland rewilding project.

Listen to the Knepp Wildland podcast on these providers:

We hope you enjoy these rewilding podcasts as much as we have done reviewing them. Should you wish to learn even more about rewilding then be sure to check out our rewilding blog, watch our YouTube channel or book a call with one of our conservation biologists! If you are looking to start your contribution to the rewilding movement immediately, then have a read of Reasons for Rewilding and find out how to get involved in both small and larger-scale rewilding projects.

We review the 5 Best Rewilding Podcasts on the airwaves. These podcasts will inspire, educate and entertain as you journey down the exciting and sometimes controversial rabbit hole of rewilding. 

The 5 Best Rewilding Podcasts

Rewilding podcasts that will inspire, educate and entertain

Being out of sight for most of us, the subterranean world is a mysterious place that has always captured our imagination. Caves have featured in human folklore since the earliest times. However few stories are as surprising or exciting as the discoveries that are being made by the field of biospeleology which focuses on the creatures that inhabit them. 

From the United States to Mexico, South Africa to Vietnam, caves have developed their fascinating designs across the entire world. They are the result of processes that in some cases, have taken millions of years to form and now stand as not only an insight into geological functions but serve as an important ecosystem to various, and often unusual organisms.  

In Slovenia, the Postojna cave system, although it is the second biggest in the country, it is effectively the home of the field of biospeleology as well as the region where the etymology of the word “karst” can be traced to. Through its 24-kilometre underground passages and caverns (as old as three million years) impressive geological creations developed that home over 150 different types of fauna.

Karst caves, the most common type, form through the gradual dissolution of limestone or dolomite bedrock caused by running water over thousands of years. The chambers and tunnels that result are characterised by environmental conditions that are nothing like those of the above ground world which they are so close to. Low light or complete darkness and a dearth of nutrients makes them seem rather inhospitable to life. However, even in these obscure corners of our planet, there are lifeforms such as the elusive olm 'dragon' that live and thrive. 

If there is one feature that many cave-dwelling animals seem to share it is that they are utterly bizarre to the human eye. This is particularly true for troglobites which are the species that are strictly bound to underground habitats. Millions of years of evolution in this unique environment led to stunning and strange adaptations. Species that once saw daylight have lost many anatomical features. Eyes and skin pigment are of little use in the pitch black so there is nothing preventing the genes behind them from being lost from the population. 

An evolutionary experiment in bizarreness 

Some of the curious creatures of the underworld

Troglobites: Strange Cave Specialists | Planet Earth | BBC Earth

The olm, Proteus anguinus, is one of the most peculiar troglobites we know of and is also one of the most well studied. The first records of the olm salamander come from 1689 in present-day Slovenia when a naturalist called Valvasor found them washing up from underground waters after heavy rains. The local people believed them to be the babies of a cave dragon which is understandable given their appearance.

With a slender body of up to 40 cm the olm salamander swims with an eel-like motion through the well oxygenated underground water it inhabits. Unlike many other salamanders the olm has remained aquatic and relies on external gills to breathe. Generations of natural selection in the dark left the olm salamander blind with underdeveloped and skin-covered eyes. To hunt the crustaceans, insects and snails that make up its diet it relies instead on an acute sense of smell and sound, an ability to sense weak electrical signals and even magnetic fields. Surprisingly though, olms can survive without eating for an entire decade, a feat that seems useful given that food in these caves can often become scarce.  The average lifespan of an olm is estimated to be 58 years and it is thought that some individuals may survive for a century or more. This makes this species a complete outlier in the animal world because it lives much longer than expected for its body size. 

The glowworms of New Zealand, Arachnocampa luminosa, are another fascinating cave dweller. They are not actually worms but fungus-eating flies that have a peculiar hunting strategy during their larval stage. After hatching, the larvae find a good spot on the cave walls from which to hunt. They secrete several threads of sticky web that hang from the ceiling. Each worm is equipped with a specialised organ that uses a chemical reaction to generate blue light. Small flying insects are attracted to the light and are then trapped by the sticky threads. The larvae then start to consume the thread thus pulling the trapped insects and essentially “fishing” them upwards before eating them alive. In caves where glowworms are common, the walls can be seen glowing with dots of blue – a spectacular and strange sight indeed. 

Describing cave life without mentioning bats would be to miss an important part of the puzzle of many subterranean ecosystems. There are about 1400 bat species around the world many of which rely on the stability and protection of subterranean environments. Some species form roosts numbering in the millions. At dusk, they leave their caves to search for food in a spectacular show that has become a tourist attraction in many parts of the world. Some species feed on insects, thus controlling their populations, others are fruit-eaters and play a role in dispersing plant seeds, and some have an important pollinator function as they move around feeding on nectar.

When bats return to the caves and drop their guano (bat faeces) they are serving another important ecological function. They are bringing nutrients from the outside world to places where the absence of light prevents plants that form the base of the food chain elsewhere can’t grow. The guano provides energy for a community of insects, spiders and crustaceans uniquely adapted to take advantage of this cave resource. 

Being out of sight and often hard to access, cave ecosystems are relatively safe from the havoc that human influence is causing in other natural places. Unfortunately, this is often far from the truth. Urban pollution and garbage dumps can contaminate karstic springs and sinkholes which feed water to caves without anyone realising. The olm, for example, is very sensitive to water contamination and this is one of the issues that has to be addressed in its native range in Southeastern Europe. In certain areas, deforestation aboveground can affect water quality belowground as the filtration properties of the soil are altered. In other cases, dams may completely alter the course of rivers and the way in which they flow underground into caves thus altering their chemistry.

When humans visit caves, or modify them in any way, they also threaten this unique ecosystem. The light, noise and structural modification of many “tourist” caves renders the environment unsuitable for creatures which have adapted to a completely different environment. Even caves that have not been modified to accommodate human visitors are threatened by cavers if they are not careful. Groups such as the British Caving Association have come up with specific guidelines to help cavers explore without causing damage. 

Many cave dwellers have a very restricted range and some species exist only in a single cave. This high rate of local endemism means that damage to a single cave system could wipe out a species from the face of the earth. Given that so much of the subterranean world is yet to be explored, chances are that species are being lost in this way before even being described by science.

At Mossy Earth we believe that pristine nature not only provides us with useful services and great enjoyment but that it is valuable in and of itself. One way this translates into concrete work is through our ugly ones' programme which is specifically dedicated to the conservation of threatened species that are considered to be uncharismatic, boring or even “ugly”. Strange and hidden, cave creatures such as the olm are great candidates for this slightly unconventional but urgently needed work. You can expect more news from us about the mysteries of the amazing world under our feet!  

On a mission to help forgotten species and their ecosystems

Adaptations: In an evolutionary sense, this is the direct result of evolution and natural selection, where animals become adapted to their environments by means of changes to their behaviour or physically to their body.  

Bedrock: The type of solid rock that rests underneath loose substances such as sand, gravel, earth or indeed the ocean. It is formed through intense heat and pressure when many varying shapes and sizes of rock are fused together. Bedrock can descend for hundreds of meters beneath the ground. 

Biospeleology: It is also referred to as “cave biology”, the study dedicated to learning about and understanding the types of animals that’s have evolved and adapted to life in caves.

Natural Selection: The theory first described by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, which suggests that genetic traits of animals are selected and passed on to their offspring, in order to give them the best opportunity of survival. Each animal is slightly different in their genetic code which constantly change with each generation. Through natural selection, those who’s genetics have adapted best to their environment will have better opportunity to feed and/or mate, produce more offspring who carry on the successful traits. 

Subterranean Ecosystems: These are unique underground communities of organisms such as plants, animals and fungi. All of the organisms involved have specifically evolved together, and to their cave setting, relying on each other to support the ecosystem. 

Delve into the alien world of cave-dwelling animals, including the olm salamander, their conservation, the exciting discoveries that are being made in the field of biospeleology.

Extraordinary and Endangered Cave Dwelling-Animals

An alien world that deserves our attention 

Cave-dwelling animals and their conservation

A single bee colony can pollinate 300 million flowers each day. Grains are primarily pollinated by the wind, but fruits, nuts, and vegetables are pollinated by bees. Seventy out of the top 100 crops that humans consume, which supplies up to 90% of the world’s nutrition, are pollinated by bees! No bees, no food, it’s that simple. We need to save the bees from bee extinction!

Why are bees under threat of extinction? 

Bee communities, both wild and managed, have been declining over the last half-century. Scientists have found that bees are dying from a variety of factors; pesticides, drought, habitat destruction, nutrition deficit, air pollution, and climate change.

Though many of these causes are interrelated, the bottom line is that humans are largely responsible for the two most prominent causes: pesticides and habitat loss.

Let's look at seven ways we can help reverse the bee's recent demise and prevent a bee extinction. 

Honeybees feed on the flowers from nearby crops and ornamental plants, and it is vital that these are not coated in pesticides that could weaken the hive. Organic farming is the overarching new policy trend that will stabilize human food production, preserve wild habitats, and protect the bees. The nation of Bhutan has led the world in adopting a 100% organic farming policy, while eight European countries have followed suit and banned particular pesticides and genetically modified crops to help revive bee numbers.

Ensure your fruit and vegetables are organically and locally grown if possible, and that you are not using any pesticides in your own garden …even if those weeds do look unsightly on the driveway!

Like human hotels, by building a bee hotel, you’ll be supplying accommodation, refreshment, and even breakfast for bees. Building a bee hotel is an easy way to save your local bees. Follow this step-by-step guide on how to build and where to put a bee hotel.

If possible, recycle and reuse scrap pieces of wood or furniture, plastic bottles, and old garden canes for your bee hotel. If you have nothing at home, visit your local waste tip to source your materials. 

Planting for pollinators and rewild your garden, allotment, or even balcony will help honeybees immensely. Bees forage from flowers rich in nectar and pollen, the former contains the sugar they require for energy while the latter provides them essential proteins and oils. When flowers are scarce, bees can starve. Use this plant for pollinators guide to discover which plants (flowers, herbs, shrubs, and trees) to grow, and when they flower. Different bees are active throughout the year, so you’ll need flowering plants from spring to winter.

You can make a huge impact on the health of your local ecosystem by starting a beehive. Having your own beehive can help you learn about bee biology, bee ecosystems, and improve the environment around you. Plus, you get the added benefits of bee products such as raw honey and beeswax, as well as the satisfaction and joy derived from working with a hive. Contact your local beekeeping club for more information.

If you’re not ready for a hive of your own, you can indirectly help bees by supporting your local beekeeper. These keepers work hard to nurture their bees and better the local community for bees and humans alike. The easiest way to do this is to buy locally-made honey and beeswax products. Such as soaps, lotions, and candles.

If you’d like a hive but don’t have the time nor space, why not help fund new hive installations? The Honeybee Conservancy in the U.S. and The British Beekeeping Association are working to install stocked honeybee hives and solitary bee homes in communities across the United States and the UK respectively. By sponsoring/adopting a beehive, you aren’t only helping to save the bees, but improving communities – beehives provide training and learning opportunities for both young and old, and the bees can help improve the local ecosystem. Such sponsorship programs provide bees and equipment to help people safely set up, maintain and observe such on-site bee sanctuaries at schools, community gardens, and green spaces.

Save the bees from extinction! But How?

Save the bees! But how? | Brandon Dawson | TEDxDuke

Rewilding is vital for pollinator conservation and the conservation of pollinators is vital for the survival of wild plants that support a diversity of wildlife. Unfortunately, three bumblebee species have become extinct in recent decades and the recent European Red List for Bees reports that almost one in ten species of wild bee face extinction. This is due to a combination of agricultural intensification, habitat loss and fragmentation, as well as pesticides and herbicide use. Wildflower meadows, a prime pollinator habitat, have declined by around 97% in the UK since the 1930s. Rewilding can help restore these vital wildflower meadows and support the conservation of bees and other pollinators. Similarly, by supporting populations of pollinators, we can support the reproduction of native wildflowers and help restore this vital habitat. Learn more about Mossy Earth's rewilding projects and the positive impacts our members are making.

Fast, Furry and (not so) Furious Bee Facts

There are 20,000 species of bees, In Europe there are around 2,000 bee species with 276 being recorded in the UK alone. 

90% of bees are solitary bees and live underground. Some are called “Mining bees” for how they burrow to build their underground nests. 

Honeybees along with other social bees have a special place on their legs to hold pollen, known as pollen baskets. Solitary bees do not have this morphological trait so when they fly pollen falls from their legs, pollinating as they go. 

Bees, only sting if they feel threatened and it’s only the female who can sting. The ‘sting’ is really an ovipositor that has seen modification thanks to evolution. Approximately 500 bee species don’t even have a sting. 

Some solitary bees take one year to complete their life cycle. The larva cocoons in the nest over winter eating pollen left by the mother. For the complete picture, see the life cycle of a solitary bee via www.biodiversityireland.ie 

It is estimated that one third of bee populations are at risk of extinction as a direct result of human activity.

If you’d like to learn more about bees and/or beekeeping we can recommend the following titles:

The Bee Book: Discover the Wonder of Bees and How to Protect Them for Generations to Come (2016) by DK

Beekeeping: Inspiration and Practical Advice for Beginners (National Trust Home & Garden) (2017) by Andrew T. Davies

A World Without Bees (2009) by Alison Benjamin & Brian McCallum

The bee Manual: The Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Keeping Bees (2015) by Claire Waring & Adrain Waring

Want to learn more about bees & beekeeping? 

Up to 90% of our nutrition is reliant on pollination by bees. Learn why they face extinction and 7 easy ways to help save the bees.

Save The Bees

7 ways to reverse their demise & prevent a bee extinction.

The past decades have witnessed an unprecedented acceleration of species and habitat loss. This phenomenon has been called by scientists the sixth mass extinction, and it is mainly caused by human activity. Concretely, it means that 3 out of 4 species that we are familiar with could be gone within a few decades. In the past 40 years, we have annihilated about half of the wildlife living on the planet. 

You might have heard in passing or in the media, that the Earth is currently undergoing its sixth mass extinction event. You might have also heard that it is humanity as a species that is causing this high rate of species loss across the globe. However, it is important to understand both what exactly that means and the gravity and consequences of this heightened level of extinction. This should register as a clear cause to alarm, but this motivation is needed for the urgent action that is required. And in the face of this extinction event, it is important not to feel hopeless and dejected as any individual can take steps to help revert the sixth mass extinction event.

Extinctions are common. It is estimated that of the four billion species that have evolved on Earth over the last 3.5 billion years, up to 99% are now gone. There is a background level of extinction that is always present. These extinctions are balanced over time by the process of speciation, which is the term used to describe the appearance of new species. To describe a rate of extinction as a mass extinction event, that rate needs to be compared to the background rate and proved to be substantially higher. In general, mass extinctions are characterised by the Earth losing around three quarters of its species in a geologically short time interval. 

Five mass extinction events have occurred in the past 540 million years. These five extinction events were near the end of the Ordovician, Devonian, Permian, Triassic and Cretaceous Periods. 

The most well-known mass extinction event happened at the end of the Cretaceous period which wiped out the dinosaurs and set the course for mammalian and bird species to dominate the Earth. While there has been debate over the years, the leading theory is that an asteroid impacting the Earth caused this mass extinction. This asteroid is hypothesized to have caused an “impact winter”, which is when an asteroid’s impact with earth or sea causes a great amount of dust and ash to be ejected into the atmosphere. This dust and ash blocks out the sun’s radiation leading to a drastic drop in global temperature. This would lead to a prolonged period of cold weather that would potentially lead to a global extinction event.

The current extinction rate has been evaluated as being over 1000 times greater than the background extinction rate. For vertebrates, studies estimate species are being lost between 24-85 times faster in the last 500 years than they were during the Cretaceous mass extinction event. It is based on these figures that many scientists have argued that we are entering the sixth mass extinction event and have termed it the Holocene Mass Extinction Event.  

Since the fifth mass extinction event took place 66 million years ago, it has been difficult for scientists to determine the causes and understand how events unfolded. That is where each mass extinction gone before is different to the one happening today – the primary cause of this one is clear and it comes down to the impact of a single species: us. Scientists have broken down the drivers of our heightened rate of extinction as being habitat loss, increased pollution, over-exploitation of resources and species, the proliferation of invasive species and the rapid rate of climate change. All of these drivers are ultimately caused by the increasing size of the human population, the increasing size of human economies and the ever-increasing rate of human overconsumption of resources.

Anthropogenic climate change is creating unpredictable and irreversible damage to species’ habitats and increasing the occurrences of extreme climate events. Land-use change is also a driver of species extinction. More and more wilderness areas are converted to agricultural land, especially biodiversity hotspots like the rainforest. Poaching and illegal trade of endangered species is decimating some extremely vulnerable species like the pangolin or the white rhinoceros.

The consequences of a sixth mass extinction

There are a range of consequences of the sixth mass extinction event, both for the Earth and species that inhabit it, including humans.

One of the more human-centric consequences of this mass extinction event is the loss of crucial ecosystem services, which are the range of benefits that humanity derives from nature. Fresh water, clean air and fertile soil are being lost due to the degradation of natural habitats and ecosystems. These ecosystem services range from the basic ones mentioned here to less obvious ones such as species that carry cultural significance to people or the actions of pollinators and seed dispersers. Additionally, scientists are still finding new chemicals, new plants and new species of bacteria and fungi that may prove beneficial for human medicine. For example, the slow-growing Pacific Yew (Taxus brevifolia) was already becoming scarce when the chemotherapy drug Paclitaxel was derived from its bark. This drug is used now to treat multiple forms of cancer and is on the WHO’s List of Essential Medicines. As the sixth mass extinction advances, we lose the species and habitats that provide us with benefits, of both a known and unknown capacity.

One of the gravest consequences of this mass extinction event is the loss of species and degradation of ecosystems. All these lost and or threatened species are unique and represent a failure on humanity’s part as the dominant species and stewards of Earth. Due to human impacts, the Earth is losing genetic lineages that have been in the making for millions of years. The Cretaceous extinction event wiped out every tetrapod species larger than 25kg with the exception of sea turtles and crocodilians. However, now nearly all sea turtle species are endangered with nearly half being critically endangered. While this species survived the extinction event that ended the 165 million reign of the dinosaurs, they may be unable to survive the impact that humanity has had on Earth in the last few hundred years.

Rewilding is the process of returning an area back to its wild state after it has been impacted by human intervention. Reforestation, nature restoration and reintroductions are different processes that themselves can fit under the wider umbrella of rewilding an area in terms of bringing back trees or animals or restoring the natural processes that had been occurring there before human intervention. 

Rewilding minimises the impact that humans have had on the environment by directly reversing those impacts and aiming to return ecosystems to their natural state. Rewilding aims to reverse the drivers of the sixth mass extinction by tackling all five of them under one unified concept of bringing a place back to the ‘wild’ – to a place of pre-human intervention, where the lost habitat is replaced, pollution is removed, over-exploitation is ceased, invasive species are controlled, and the consequences of climate change are mitigated.

When it comes to individual action against the sixth mass extinction, it is easy to feel small and helpless in the face of such large-scale, global change. However, it is small actions culminated together that make up the difference. If rewilding and reforesting areas is what can directly impact the extinction drivers, supporting individual projects and working towards rewilding the Earth is something any individual can do to decelerate this mass extinction event. 

There are numerous groups and projects working towards rewilding and reforesting the globe, along with conservation groups and research groups that dedicate themselves to working against the sixth mass extinction. But it is the individuals supporting these groups that allow such work to continue. This support can come in many forms, from donating time and physical ability as volunteers, or donating technical expertise or financial donations or through word-of-mouth and spreading awareness. Here at Mossy Earth, it is because of our individual members that we are able to reforest and rewild in the face of the sixth mass extinction event.

Extinction rates are measured as extinctions occurring per million species per year, also known as E/MSY. Therefore, a rate of two species lost out of every million species every year is depicted as 2 E/MSY. 2 E/MSY is also the same as two extinctions per 10,000 species every 100 years. It has been commonly accepted that the background extinction rate is around 1 E/MSY, but more recent estimates have put the background rate as low as 0.1 E/MSY with the current rate being 1,000 times higher at 100 E/MSY.

The Ordovician–Silurian (O–S): 450-440 million years ago. 60%-70% of species lost

The Late Devonian Extinction: 375-360 million years ago.  70% of species lost

The Permian-Triassic: 252 million years ago. 90%-96% of species lost

End of trilobites and mammal-like reptiles (early synapsids)

The Triassic-Jurassic: 201 million years ago. 70%-75% of species lost

End of the non-dinosaur archosaurs (excepting some crocodilians)

Cretaceous-Paleogene: 66 million years ago. 75% of species lost

End of the non-avian dinosaurs (excepting some crocodilians)

E/MSY: Rate of extinction, number of extinctions per million species per year.

Tetrapods: Four-limbed species including birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals.

Synapsids: Mammals and early mammals after they diverged from birds and reptiles (these two are diapsids)

Archosaurs: Biological group involving birds, crocodilians and the extinct dinosaurs.

The past decades have witnessed an unprecedented acceleration of species and habitat loss. This phenomenon has been called by scientists the 6th mass extinction.

What Is The Sixth Mass Extinction And What Can I Do About It?

Rewilding can help create a healthier, more resilient natural world. As we become ever more aware of the threats to our planet and the need to safeguard its future, rewilding offers us a crucial opportunity. But what do we mean by rewilding? The term is controversial and often misunderstood. It's frequently thought to refer to the reintroduction of apex predators, like wolves, to a landscape. Though this is often a piece of the puzzle, rewilding is about much more. Here we answer the question "What is Rewilding?"

For thousands of years, humans have changed landscapes and disrupted natural ecosystems. We've cleared large swathes of forest for agriculture, removed large carnivores from much of their range and changed the course of rivers. We're the ultimate ecosystem engineers and the natural world has suffered at our hands. In the face of climate breakdown and global extinctions, it’s now more urgent than ever that we not only protect what we have left but also restore and rewild the ecosystems that we have destroyed.

This is where rewilding comes in. Rewilding is based on the premise that nature knows best how to take care of itself. We can give it a helping hand and create the right conditions by restoring vital ecosystem processes like predation, grazing, regeneration and decomposition. For example, carnivores like wolves and lynx shape ecosystems in their role as top predators. They affect the numbers and behaviour of prey species and this has a knock-on effect on the other species in the ecosystem. The impacts of these carnivores can be felt as far down the food chain as the plant species, a phenomenon known as a trophic cascade. Today, initiatives across the globe are bringing these top predators back and restoring the species and natural processes that keep the Earth’s ecosystems healthy.

Ultimately, within a rewilded landscape there shouldn’t be much need for active management. Nature can look after itself better and more cost-effectively than we can. Rewilding is therefore about reducing human control over the land. It does not mean removing people from the land entirely. In fact, in these wilder landscapes, people and planet can flourish together.

Much of the bad attention that rewilding has seen has come from it being misunderstood and negative connotations attached to it. Our disconnect from nature certainly plays a role too. It’s easy to see rewilding as a scary, dangerous venture with wolf packs to be soon roaming through our streets. However, these are truly far-fetched notions. Learning more about how ecosystems work, the need for biodiversity, and the actual behaviour of animals, are the best ways to put an end to these damaging ideas. 

This is why significant effort must be invested in implementing rewilding projects so locals in close proximity are promised the security of their livelihoods. For farmers who already have financial burdens, an influx of top predators which could kill livestock would come as unwelcome news. Education and communication are absolute paramount to ensure those who may be affected, are given necessary resources and can mitigate against any potential impacts. Our project supporting livestock guarding dogs is designed to address one such issue.

When nature is healthy, it can provide us with abundant products and services, from food and medicine to flood defences and cool air. It offers rural communities economic opportunities through things like wildlife-based tourism. It makes us feel better too. Connecting with nature is good for our mental and physical health. Of course, it's good for the non-human animals that inhabit our earth too. Top predators and grazers are reclaiming lost ground across the globe while rare plants and insects are making a comeback in regenerating forests. These healthier, more intact ecosystems can also help us fight against climate breakdown by keep carbon stored in plants and soil.

To learn more about the benefits of rewilding, we also recommend reading our Reasons For Rewilding and Trophic Cascades articles. 

There are lots of opportunities for you to personally engage in rewilding, whether it is rewilding your garden into a wildlife-friendly zone of native wildflowers, writing to local councils to leave roadside verges uncut, or volunteering at your local wildlife trust or green space. You could also support one of the many conservation organizations working to restore the world's degraded habitats and protect endangered wildlife. Alternatively, you could sign up as a Mossy Earth member to contribute to monthly rewilding interventions across the globe. 

Rewilding can take on other forms too and by looking at the city of Singapore (the Garden City), we see their green initiatives and active encouragement of nature as true potential of what rewilding plans can look like.

Since the 1960’s, the city-state Singapore has been implementing strategies to ensure that they maintain and increase green spaces, despite the continued and unavoidable urban expansion. With a focus on improving living standards and welfare of its population, laws and strategies were put into effect which made property planners required to replant the same amount of green space as they remove for building. This has spurred a spectacular movement of green buildings and a lush verdant cityscape with forest cover actually increasing in stride with the city. 

Local areas of biodiversity have too been protected. Even on a simple walk around the city you can spot magnificent wildlife from giant otters to endangered langur monkeys or the unusual hornbill.

Oriental Pied-Hornbills: Singapore Nature 2020

Rewilding focuses on restoring ecosystem processes. Landscapes are not restored with a fixed set of end goals in mind. It’s not about rebuilding what once was, but about supporting a constantly evolving, ecologically dynamic landscape. Through rewilding, we can create a future in which our natural world is allowed to work without interruption to shape our landscapes. In doing so, we can help bring wilderness back from the brink.

Climate Breakdown: Referring to the irreversible changes to the climate that are a direct result of human activity. It is a term that moves away from global warming and highlighting the urgency of action as unpredictable weather changes will become more common place. 

Decomposition: This is a state where organic matter decays, rots and is then turned into simpler matter which is transferred to its surroundings. This process is aided by microorganisms as well as fungi and bacteria which help disintegrate the decomposing matter.

Predation: The act of one species killing another as a food source. This interspecific relationship occurs when one species from a higher trophic level, preys on the species from a lower level of the food chain.

Prey Species: These are the species of lower trophic levels that are hunted by predator species for food.

Regeneration: When we talk about regeneration, we refer to the natural (or sometimes artificial) replanting of native forests. It is the re-growing of trees, where trees used to be. It’s preferable to stand back and let nature take its course although if the area has been heavily exploited, manual planting and extra care will be necessary to ensure growth

Rewilding is a positive approach to conservation based on that premise that nature knows best. Read on to discover the intricacies of what is rewilding.

What is Rewilding?

How Can It Help Create A Healthier Natural World?

Trophic cascades take place when predators at the apex of a food chain alter the numbers not just of their own prey, but also of the species with which they have no direct connection. Their impacts cascade down the food web, in some cases radically transforming the ecosystem and surrounding landscape.

One of the strangest trophic cascade effects is the correlation between the decimation of India’s vultures and an epidemic outbreak of rabies. In a relatively short period, vulture populations dwindled due to the use of an anti-inflammatory drug administered to cattle called diclofenac. The drug was fatal to vultures when they consumed carcasses containing traces of it. As the vulture populations collapsed, the carrion they ate, was instead consumed by feral dogs, which correspondingly boosted their numbers. Dog bites are said to be the cause of 95% of the deaths from rabies in India, and the rising number of feral dogs has meant more people are likely to be infected by the disease.

In northern Europe, salmon that live in beaver dams are generally much bigger than salmon in other parts of the rivers. The dams built by beavers provide salmon with shelter they cannot find elsewhere, and so the juvenile salmon grow faster and become healthier and stronger. The total weight of all the creatures living in the water may be between two and five times greater in beaver ponds than in undammed waterways.

In addition to improving salmon stocks, the beaver plays an unwittingly yet vital role in flood prevention. So much so that environmental agencies are now mimicking beaver behaviour by putting woody debris back into streams and rivers to slow the water flow. Such an approach to flood management is simple and effective but very expensive – while beavers could be doing it for nothing!

Though the majestic lynx has not yet been reintroduced into Scotland, there are a growing number of advocates for its return. An introduction of lynx would help curb numbers of roe and other small deer species, which currently overrun much of the Scottish Highlands.

Yet an even more surprising trophic cascade effect is lynx suppressing deer numbers would be a corresponding decline in cases of Lyme’s disease. Spread to humans by deer ticks, Lyme’s disease is a debilitating and sometimes incurable illness, which according to an article on Lyme’s disease in Health Spectator has increased in England, Wales and Scotland over the last ten years. There could be no better time to bring back the lynx!

Every springtime bluebells transform the UK’s woodlands, and it’s these uninterrupted carpets of intense blues and purples that have made British woods so famous. However during a recent visit to Knepp Wildland in Sussex, I learnt an inconvenient truth that a monoculture of any species (including bluebells) is an indication, not of the wealth of the ecosystem, but its poverty!

If you go to Knepp Wildland in spring, which is as close to being an undisturbed ecosystem in the UK, you won’t find woodland floors carpeted in bluebells. Instead, you’ll find a whole host of wildflowers jostling one another in an explosion of colour. Such vibrancy and variety demonstrate just how much the rest of Britain’s woodlands are missing, and the extent to which wild boar or in the case of Knepp, Tamworth pigs transform their environment.

Trophic Cascades are not just synonymous with large carnivores. - The free-roaming Tamworth pigs at Knepp and the wild boars of northern Europe can live alongside bluebells, but not only bluebells. By rooting and grubbing on the woodland floor, they create small wetlands in their wallows, and habitats for a fascinating and vibrant host of flora and fauna, and ultimately a much richer ecosystem, albeit with fewer bluebells.

Knepp Estate

This farm in England is run by its animals | Pioneers for Our Planet

Trophic cascades can in certain circumstances help to combat and mitigate the impacts of climate change by restoring healthy ecosystem services. For example, where herbivores exist at extremely high densities, excessive browsing is limiting the ability of woodlands to regenerate, thereby inhibiting their ability to sequester carbon. Returning predators to an area can therefore help woodlands regenerate and lead to more carbon being captured in the trees and soils. Similarly, an absence of marine predators, specifically whales could lead to increased greenhouse gases. Whales play a crucial role in ocean carbon sequestration by circulating essential nutrients from the bottom of the ocean to the surface, where they are feed on phytoplankton and other carbon sequestering flora. By conserving these species, we can protect their vital place in the ocean’s food web and secure their role in capturing carbon and fighting global climate change. 

The infamous trophic cascade effect of wolves of Yellowstone, kept elk populations in check as well as influencing their grazing patterns, which inadvertently rewilded riverbanks. The resulting regrowth attracted greater numbers of songbirds, larger birds of prey, and enabled populations of salmon, beaver and bison to increase.

And if that wasn’t enough, the wolves unwittingly re-engineered the soil composition. As the numbers of salmon rose, which are caught by bears, otters, eagles and ospreys, as did the number of salmon carcasses dragged onto land and eaten. The carcasses, rich in nutrients, were spread along the riverbanks in the animals’ dung. It’s said that up to 16% of the nitrogen in the leaves of trees within 500m of a salmon stream came from the sea.

Carbon Sequestration: Is the trapping and storing of carbon dioxide to prevent it from entering the atmosphere. The ocean is the main proponent of carbon sequestration, storing huge quantities of CO2. Forests are also invaluable at capturing and storing CO2.

Ecosystem: A community of biological organisms such as animals, plants, fungi and how they interact with one other and the environment they live in. An ecosystem has biological, physical and chemical components and come in endless forms. 

Greenhouse Gases: Gasses that accumulate in the planet’s atmosphere creating the greenhouse effect. GHG’s will permit heat to travel through them however will not let it return, thus creating the Greenhouse effect, the warming of the area within the atmosphere. Such gasses include Methane, Carbon Dioxide and Nitrous Oxide. 

Monoculture: They are farms and plantations that only grow a single species of plant for human use. They do not exist in nature and are often created at the expense of natural occurring ecosystems and habitats.

Phytoplankton: Microscopic organisms, mostly algae, that live in the ocean. With over 5,000 known species, they provide the foundation for much of the life in the oceans, being food for many marine species. They also play an invaluable role in carbon capture, using CO2   to survive via photosynthesis.

Wetlands: They are naturally occurring flooded lands that provide unique habitats to organisms. Wetlands are also highly valuable for the mitigation of climate change and provide natural flood protection.

Trophic cascades take place when apex predators alter the numbers not just of their own prey but also of the species with which they have no direct connection.

Trophic Cascades - The Unexpected Effects

Rewilding has become a popular term in Britain, although not all conservation organizations are using it. It’s politically controversial and often misunderstood. Nevertheless, much of the landscape-scale restoration work underway looks a lot like rewilding, even if it’s not referred to as such. Here we discuss what rewilding in Britain means, the misconceptions and the benefits. 

Rewilding basically means returning the landscape to a wilder state, not necessarily to a pristine state of wilderness. This usually means that natural ecosystems are able to once again shape the landscape in the absence of human intervention. These processes could be predation, grazing, regeneration, decomposition and more. In severely altered landscapes, as in Britain, significant intervention might be needed to kick things off,  whether that’s planting or fencing out herbivores, but the idea is to one day step back and let nature take care of itself for a healthier, more resilient natural world. 

What would a rewilded Britain look like? 

Like much of Europe, Britain’s landscapes have been drastically changed, denuded and degraded. Large swathes of native forest have been cleared for agriculture and timber, large carnivores have been wiped out, ocean fish populations depleted, and rivers and streams rerouted. We, therefore, have an idea where we’ve gone wrong, and how to undo some of that damage, but it’s not really about restoring nature with a fixed set of goals in mind or towards a specific snapshot of the past. Instead, a rewilded Britain will be one where natural processes are working to recreate woodlands in some areas and peatlands and meadows in others. Further up the scale of wilderness, it might one day mean carnivores are once again controlling herbivores and mesopredators, enabling woodland regeneration and providing habitat for a rich diversity of woodland wildlife. 

It can be easy to see these initiatives as being damaging, scary and not good for people's livelihoods, but something we must understand is that there is a reason why conservationists, scientists and so much of the public are calling out for these projects. For centuries native wildlife have been persecuted, take the Eurasian Lynx. The plan for its reintroduction has been overshadowed by claims that it will hunt sheep and be a menace to the human population, when, in reality, lynx don’t hunt sheep and in fact, they would hunt foxes, who are more of a threat to sheep and their lambs. In addition, there has never been a recorded lynx attack on a human. But still, even with facts, misinformation still spreads. Dialogue, communication, initiatives and workgroups are paramount to these projects succeeding. The biggest killer of false-truths is education, and the more effort government puts into educating and getting local communities on board as well as making sure their livelihoods are protected, rewilding has a real chance of working. 

Fears and misconceptions of rewilding in Britain

The benefits accrued from a rewilded landscape can be felt by us, as well as nature itself. When nature is healthy, it can provide us with abundant products and services, from food and medicine to flood defences and cool air. Greater woodland cover in Britain will help fight global climate change, stabilise soils and prevent flooding. Restored peatlands will also capture carbon and store water.  Richer landscapes could provide rural communities economic opportunities through things like wildlife-based tourism. It might also makes us feel better too. Connecting with nature is good for our mental and physical health. Of course, it's good for the non-human animals that inhabit our earth too. 

Rewilding Brexit Britain

Rewilding Brexit Britain: the radical shake-up of Britain’s farming

There is an ever increasing list of ambitious rewilding projects. Large-scale habitat restoration is being driven by the likes of Cairngorms Connect, Trees for Life and the John Muir Trust. Pine martens are returning to England at the hands of the Vincent Wildlife Trust, while the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation has helped red squirrels, ospreys, white-tailed eagles and more reclaim former haunts. 

Mossy Earth’s rewilding projects in Britain 

To date, we have planted several thousand trees to help restore the Caledonian pinewoods of the Scottish Highlands. There, we’ve also constructed two eagle nest platforms to support the breeding of native golden and white-tailed eagles, so they can once again preside over the ancient pinewoods from their regal nests in the canopy. We are also in the process of supporting the monitoring of Atlantic salmon to identify key barriers on their grueling migration upriver and developing a project to translocation mountain hares to boost an isolated and dwindling population. 

Unsuccessful rewilding projects in the UK

Things do not always go to plan of course. Several unsuccessful applications have been made to reintroduce lynx to Britain, with little progress. Among criticisms was a lack of consultation with important stakeholders, not least the local communities of the proposed release sites. The success of rewilding projects often hinges upon social factors as much as ecological ones. Without proper consultation with those who are likely to be affected, negative attitudes towards rewilding are likely to pose significant challenges to ambitious potentially controversial projects.  

As an individual, how can I get involved in rewilding Britain?

There are endless opportunities for you to personally engage in rewilding, whether it is growing a wildlife friendly garden of native wildflowers, writing to local councils to leave roadside verges uncut, or volunteering at your local wildlife trust or green space. You could also support one of the conservation organizations mentioned above working to restore Britain’s degraded habitats and conserve our threatened wildlife. Alternatively, you could join the Mossy Earth membership to contribute monthly to rewilding landscapes and conserving species in Britain and beyond. 

There are incredibly ambitious large-scale habitat restoration and species conservation currently underway in Britain. As these continue, Britain will continue to feel wilder with large expanses of healthy habitat and flourishing species of wildlife and flora. At the same time, wilderness is returning to the concrete world of villages, towns and cities with roadside verges becoming increasingly rich in insect life and gardens home to urban foxes and badgers. In a rewilded Britain, the boundary between the human and natural world will be harder to find. 

Ecosystem - A community of biological organisms such as animals, plants, fungi and how they interact with one other and the environment they live in. An ecosystem has biological, physical and chemical components and come in endless forms. 

Denuded - This is when all trees or natural covering on a landscape is removed. This leaves the ground exposed and vulnerable as well as removes habitat opportunities for local wildlife. 

Regeneration - When we talk about regeneration, we refer to the natural (or sometimes artificial) replanting of native forests. It is the re-growing of trees, where trees used to be. It’s preferable to stand back and let nature take its course although if the area has been heavily exploited, manual planting and extra care will be necessary to ensure growth. 

 Mesopredators - “A mid-ranking predator”, these are not eagles or bears, nor are they shrews or earthworms but somewhere in the middle. Mesopredators can be crows, foxes and skunks. In trophic cascades, and the absence of apex predators, we can see an overabundance of mesopredators as they are not being predated upon.

Nest Platforms - They are (usually) large areas built high from the ground, specifically designed to provide a safe breeding space for endangered birds. Materials such as sticks, twigs, leaves, as well as inorganic human materials. The construction and materials depend on the species of bird the nest is for

Translocation - This is where an animal (or plant or soil) is transferred from one location, to another. This can be for various reasons which include, establishing a new population or for the safety of the animal who may need medical treatment. They can be quite difficult and often require a range of stages that must be backed by science to ensure success and minimize stress on the animal.  

Rewilding in Britain has become inspirational for many, while politically controversial & misunderstood by others. Here we discuss what it means, the misconceptions & benefits.

Rewilding In Britain

What it means, the misconceptions & the benefits

A contentious issue, there is no doubt about it and one that cultivates intense conversation, heated tempers, and blog posts being inundated with angry emojis over angry comments that gush righteousness and misinformation. So obviously the best thing to do is to look at this roasting hot topic from all angles and learn just why people feel so strongly about birds of prey (or bops) in these islands. 

This is no easy conversation which can see opposing sides spouting facts and figures from ‘independent’ studies at one another, often aggressively. In one corner you have environmental organizations such as the RSPB, British Trust of Ornithology and BirdWatch Ireland as well as environmental scientists and conservationists. On the opposing side are those who race pigeons, game keepers and some farmers who see birds of prey as a threat to their own animals. Sensationalist newspapers draw from both to fan the flames and aid the spread of stigmas and outdated notions but hopefully here, in the next few passages, we can look at both arguments and the science, to end damaging ideas and think of how we can move forward together. 

The History of Birds of Prey in Ireland and the UK

Firstly, let’s look at birds of prey, who are also known as raptors, the word coming from the latin raptare which means “to seize and carry off”, how tremendously fitting. Until the last few hundred years, the existence of birds of prey was far more prominent, not only in the natural world but also in folklore and mythology. The story of the mythological Irish seer Fintan mac Bóchra, who after a lifetime of 5,000 years, took his final form as The Hawk of Achill. In this story he has lived throughout all ages of the world, morphing into different animals and now tells its history. So, why are we talking about ancient mythical Irish men, perhaps this is marvelously unrelated but dare we search for meaning in myth? Maybe just for a moment. Can we acknowledge a reverence attributed to these birds and is it just coincidence that a hawk was the final form of a seer, a wise old man, surely past generations were able to take how they saw the animals interact with their environment and wove it into their storytelling?  On some level, a status and respect, was attributed to birds of prey by generation of the past, and maybe it’s time we rekindle it.

What Birds of Prey are there in Ireland and the UK?

Ireland is home to 11 species of raptor and the UK 15. Some of the most visible include the common buzzard, sparrow hawks, kestrels and peregrine falcons (the fastest moving animal on earth). Merlin’s and Goshawks too can occasionally be seen but can be difficult to identify to the untrained eye. Hen Harriers as well as Red Tailed Kites also share the skies with the occasional visit of Montagu’s harrier. Have I also mentioned EAGLES? ? Golden eagles, and White-Tailed Eagles, the latter being the 4th largest bird of prey in the world. Both once had a wide range across these islands, however they are now only found in isolated locations and are exceedingly rare BUT they are here, and that fact in itself I think, is a little bit marvelous. 

This is not the conclusive list, (we haven’t mentioned owls, but you better believe we will) though perhaps we can appreciate that there are far more big birds soaring above us than once thought. 

Each species has their place in the ecosystem, their own prey and how they catch it can differ significantly between species. They all fill a niche in the environment and each one with a slightly unique approach. Some plummet in spectacular dives towards their prey, others hurdle and weave through dense forest and thickets, while others might awkwardly clunk down, landing on whatever they’re after, or simply wade through fields in search of bugs. Their tactics and diet can change depending on the birds themselves; where they live; what season it is; and what food sources are available; as well as coming down to individual preference. But even still, raptors have a varied diet to be proud of. So much so, peregrine falcons globally have been documented consuming over 2,000 prey items. 

Even though they are a big bird, males between 550g-1kg mainly eat carrion, which is normally only for the worms, and speaking of worms, they make up a surprisingly large part of the buzzard’s diet, you can see them walking in field hunting them. Buzzards hunt worms… Amazing. 

Peregrine falcons on the other hand catch all their prey on the wing (except some they may steal from other raptors, devils!), deploying hunting tactics that can see them plummeting towards the earth at 200kms an hour to snatch an unsuspecting starling right out of the air. The females are larger (as is often the case with bops) and can therefore catch bigger prey however, both specialize in catching birds like waders, gulls and ducks. 

Raptors have a devilish penchant for eating carrion, they’re mad for it. This plays marvelously into the hands of the ecosystem, as we all know how terrible food wastage is, let alone the disease that rotting animals can create but instead it’s giving all the nutrients back into the food cycle.

They not only have a wizard name but also, despite their small size are ferocious little birds who have been observed attacking trains. However, when train hunts are unsuccessful (one figure suggests 98% of the time) their diet can range from sandpipers, bats and insects but it depends on their location. One study in Ireland showed the Merlin’s diet comprised of 24 bird species which accounted for 65.9% of its total diet. The rest of its protein came from moths at 33.1% and dragonflies at 1%.

Birds of Prey as apex predators and their importance for ecosystem health

Birds of prey are found literally on every continent, in every ecosystem, except Antarctica. That’s right, peregrine falcons along with several other species are found in arctic regions and for good reason. Raptors are indicator species who can tell us how healthy the ecosystem is. It may seem counter-intuitive but the more of these carnivorous beauties there are, the more other species there are as well. Raptors simply can’t survive unless there is a large diversity of prey to choose from. They are also apex predators and essential components of the food web. 

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