Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea and Human Life

Imagine a world where the wild is not just a distant memory but a living, breathing reality around us. This world is not a fantasy but a possibility that calls to the deepest parts of our being. For centuries, we have been told stories that paint wolves as monsters, yet the truth is far less terrifying. In fact, in the entire 21st century, wolves in North America have been responsible for only one death. Our fears are often shaped by myths rather than reality. Even vending machines, objects of mundane modernity, kill more people annually than wolves. This stark contrast reveals how disconnected we have become from nature and how myths can cloud our understanding.

But why do these fears persist? Perhaps because wolves embody traits that mirror our own social intelligence, their eyes seeming to read our minds, stirring a primal recognition. This uneasy familiarity may be why wolves have become symbols in folklore and film, sometimes transforming into humans and vice versa. Our imagination responds vividly to threats that once shaped our survival, even when those threats no longer exist.

Yet, beyond fear, there is a yearning—a craving for a wilder, rawer life that many of us feel but cannot articulate. This feeling is what ecological boredom describes: a dullness born from living in sanitized, controlled environments where nature is reduced to tame parks and distant wildlife documentaries. The word that captures this longing is 'rewilding,' a relatively new term that has grown to encompass much more than its original meaning of releasing captive animals into the wild.

Today, rewilding is a call to restore the natural processes that have been suppressed. It is about letting ecosystems find their own way, free from human micromanagement. It involves reintroducing missing species, removing artificial barriers, and allowing landscapes and seascapes to heal and evolve. But crucially, it also invites us to rewild our own lives, to reconnect with the wildness within us without abandoning the benefits of civilization.

This dual aspect of rewilding—ecological and human—is what makes it so compelling. It offers hope and freedom, not constraint. It challenges us to break free from the monotony of modern life and rediscover the thrill and unpredictability that nature once provided. Rewilding is not a retreat but an engagement, a way to love nature more deeply while still enjoying the fruits of civilization.

As we embark on this journey, we begin to see that nature is not a static museum piece but a dynamic, self-willed entity. The ecosystems that emerge will not be identical to those of the past, but they will be vibrant and full of life, accessible to all who seek them. This vision is the foundation for the chapters that follow, where we explore the science, stories, and struggles of rewilding across land and sea.

Let us now move forward to understand the historical and ecological contexts that have shaped the landscapes we see today and why rewilding is both urgent and transformative.